A little over five months after tasting defeat in the Assembly elections from Khammam, industrialist-turned-politician Nama Nageswara Rao staged a remarkable turnaround by winning Khammam Lok Sabha seat by a huge margin of over 1.68 lakh votes.
Mr. Rao achieved highest-ever winning margin in the constituency by surpassing his record victory in 2009 Lok Sabha elections by a margin of 1.24 lakh votes.
Mr Rao, who unsuccessfully contested from Khammam Assembly seat on the TDP ticket in December last year, quit the party and joined the ruling TRS in March this year.
Almost immediately, he secured the TRS ticket from Khammam and trounced Congress heavyweight and former Union Minister Renuka Chowdhury, whom he defeated in 2009 elections. He was defeated by Ms Renuka in 2004 Lok Sabha polls.
The TRS leadership accorded top priority to win the Khammam Lok Sabha seat in the backdrop of the party’s poor performance in the Assembly polls in the district apparently due to rampant groupism.
Acting on instructions from the party high command, the senior leaders of the party, including former MP P. Srinivas Reddy, who was denied the party ticket from Khammam, and several new entrants into the party, worked cohesively for the victory of Mr Rao.
Mr Rao secured highest winning margin of 34,227 votes in Palair Assembly segment, represented by K Upender Reddy, who switched over to the TRS from the Congress recently.
Similarly, he registered a high winning margin of 31,937 votes in Sattupalli segment, represented by S Venkata Veeraiah, who joined the ruling party after quitting the TDP in March this year.
In Madhira constituency represented by Congress Legislature Party leader M B Vikramarka, Mr Nageswara Rao secured 18,264 winning margin. He managed to register good victory margins in the remaining four Assembly segments - Khammam, Kothagudem, Aswaraopeta and Wyra.
The defeat of Ms Renuka came as a rude shock to the Congress cadres who anticipated a repeat of the splendid performance of the party, which won six of the total ten Assembly seats in the erstwhile undivided Khammam district in December last. It also exposed lack of cohesion among the senior leaders of the party and internal bickering in the district Congress.
The Congress party, which is reeling under a string of desertions by several elected representatives of the party, suffered a crushing defeat in its traditional stronghold.
The resounding victory of Mr Rao infused fresh enthusiasm among the ruling TRS cadres in the district.
