Known as one of the few industrial estates established in the country in the early 1960s, the Sanathnagar Assembly Constituency in the city is poised to witness a very close contest this time with the Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) joining forces against Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) as part of the People’s Front.
With the last three elections recording a maximum of 57.57% (2009) polling, the turnout of voters this time is expected to hold key in the constituency dominated by middle and working classes. The polling percentage assumes higher significance this time as the electorate has become smaller by 10,890 votes compared to the last election.
The 2018 election for Sananthnagar Assembly seat is going to be the first one without Congress being in the fray directly since 1978, when the constituency came into being, as TDP is contesting it as part of its alliance with the former. Transfer of the Congress vote to TDP is being seen as a huge task in the backdrop of M. Shashidhar Reddy, the three-time Congress legislator, making no bones of his disappointment against allotment of the seat to TDP. Yet, he has been campaigning for the alliance candidate on and off.
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In 2014, Talasani Srinivas Yadav who contested on TDP ticket withstood the Telangana sentiment and won the seat comfortably by security 45.65% of the polled votes and the nearest rival Dande Vithal of TRS got only 23.45% votes. Congress finished third with only 19.26% vote and three other parties – YSR Congress, Lok Satta and Aam Aadmi – secured nearly 9% votes together.
However, Mr. Srinivas Yadav switched his loyalties to TRS later and became a minister in the K. Chandrasekhar Rao cabinet. He is banking his prospects this time on the development works taken up with about ₹4,600 crore in the constituency during the last four years including the first completed double-bedroom housing colony and their construction is under progress at five more places.
On the other hand, TDP candidate Kuna Venkatesh Goud is trying his luck for the third time to enter the Assembly since 2009, when he contested on Praja Rajyam Party ticket from Kukatapally after being denied Sanathnagar ticket. Later, he joined TDP and contested from Secunderabad constituency in 2014 and was defeated by T. Padma Rao of TRS with big margin.
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Bhawarlal Varma contesting the seat on Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ticket is also not new to politics as he was a Corporator of GHMC for one term in the past. He is banking mostly on the votes of those settled from Northern States. Both Mr. Srinivas Yadav and Mr. Venkatesh Goud have the reputation of being available to their constituents but the same is not being said about Mr. Bhawarlal.
Problems such as inadequate water supply in several slums and poor condition of roads are being seen as major issues in the constituency.