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Congress likely to have it easy in Secundrabad

Shireen in Hyderabad

Union Minister of State for Urban Affairs and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya, who filed his nomination papers from Secunderabad on Monday, faces a formidable challenge from the Congress this time, despite the alliance between his Telugu Desam Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Consequently, former chief minister Nadendla Bhaskara Rao of the Congress is likely to have it easy.

In 1998, it was an easy victory for Dattatreya. All he had to do was garner support of disgruntled Congressmen who wanted to ensure the defeat of former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao's son, P V Rajeshwar Rao.

However, over the last one and a half years, the scene has changed in this all-urban constituency, with the BJP and the TDP witnessing an erosion of their support base and the Congress regaining much of the lost ground.

"The statistics of 1998 polls do not mean anything now. If you add up the votes polled by the BJP and the TDP (which contested separately at that time), you have 631,673 votes versus 252,676 votes polled by the Congress. That will mean the Congress has no chance this time. But, the ground situation reveals otherwise," says a senior Congress leader.

"Dattatreya won in 1991 and again in 1996, even when the BJP had no poll alliance with the TDP, because we Congressmen wanted to defeat our own candidates. Dattatreya benefited from our cross-voting. And, when we decided to back our own candidates, he failed,'' said the Congress leader.

Another reason why Dattatreya is likely to face rough weather in the ensuing polls is that the Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections are being held simultaneously. The Congress legislators representing four out of the seven assembly segments in this parliamentary constituency are expected to put up a good show to retain their own seats.

On the other hand, the BJP has stirred up trouble in the lone assembly segment held by it -- Maharajgunj -- by replacing the sitting legislator.

Two sitting legislators from the ruling TDP, former minister T Srinivasa Yadav and C Krishna Yadav too face dissidence in their respective segments--Secunderabad and Himayatnagar.

Also, there is also lot of resentment among the TDP and the BJP cadres in the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency over the assembly seat-sharing.

With almost everything in its favout the Congress is making a serious bid to retain the four assembly segments it currently controls and also wrest back three other segments from the TDP-BJP combine.

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