News Telangana

All You Need To Know About BJP’s Venkata Ramana Reddy, The Dark Horse Of Kamareddy

December 4, 2023
The Commune

In a highly contested battle within the Kamareddy constituency of Telangana, Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged victorious, overcoming the challenges posed by K Chandrasekhar Rao of Bhartiya Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and A Revanth Reddy, the state Congress chief. In this three-way competition, Reddy secured 66,652 votes, surpassing KCR and Revanth Reddy who obtained 59,911 and 54,916 votes, respectively, securing the second and third positions.

Despite the Congress party’s overall success in the Telangana assembly elections, defeating the ruling BRS, the defeat of A Revanth Reddy, a prominent contender for the Chief Minister’s position, has brought a sense of embarrassment to the party. Notably, there were 39 candidates in the Kamareddy constituency.

A 53-year-old businessman, Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy, holds a Class 12 qualification. According to his election affidavit, his total declared assets amount to Rs 49.7 crore, including Rs 2.2 crore in movable assets and Rs 47.5 crore in immovable assets. His total declared income is Rs 9.8 lakh, of which Rs 4.9 lakh is self-income, and he has total liabilities of Rs 58.3 lakh. There are 11 criminal cases registered against him.

In the previous 2018 assembly elections, Gampa Govardhan from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now BRS) secured the MLA position in Kamareddy, obtaining 42% of the total votes. He won against Congress’ Mohammad Ali Shabbir by a margin of 2%.

Kamareddy Assembly constituency, numbered 16, is situated in the North Telangana region and Kamareddy district, falling under the 5th Zahirabad (General) Lok Sabha (Parliamentary) constituency. Categorized as a General Rural constituency, it has an estimated Scheduled Caste population of 14.73% and a Scheduled Tribe population of 4.67%, as per the Delimitation Commission report of 2008. The district’s estimated literacy level is 48.49%, according to the Census of India 2011.

In the 2023 Telangana Assembly elections, the Kamareddy constituency had a total of 2,45,822 eligible electors, with 1,18,718 males, 1,27,080 females, and 24 registered voters belonging to the third gender.

Following his triumph, KV Ramana Reddy, a businessman turned politician, expressed gratitude to the people of Kamareddy, stating in a tweet, “This victory belongs to all the people of Kamareddy constituency.”

K Chandrasekhar Rao, who has served as Chief Minister of Telangana twice since its formation in June 2014, faced a significant setback with this defeat. Meanwhile, despite losing the election, A Revanth Reddy is purportedly leading the race for Chief Ministership if Congress forms the government in the state, based on the current trend, although he lost the election.

KV Ramana Reddy’s victory is being highlighted as that of a ‘giant killer’ who defeated both the outgoing and potentially the next Chief Minister of Telangana, signaling a groundswell and the emergence of leaders for the BJP in the Southern state.

Commending Reddy’s triumph, former Union Minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted, “Please don’t ignore this great man! BJP’s Katipally Venkata Ramana defeated both the sitting CM of Telangana, KCR, and Congress CM candidate, Revanth Reddy from the Kamareddy Assembly seat. This is a major victory which is not being discussed at all!”

G Kishan Reddy, BJP’s Telangana state President, echoed the sentiment, tweeting, “It’s Saffron Wave in Kamareddy. Hearty Congratulations to Shri Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy @kvr4kamareddy on winning the Kamareddy seat. It is extremely heartening that our Kamareddy Candidate, Shri Katipally Venkata Ramana Reddy has defeated both the Telangana CM KCR and the President of the Telangana Congress, Shri A. Revanth Reddy. This shows that the BJP candidates have the Telangana people’s support and can humble any leader of any stature.”

 

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