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Updated: Apr 11, 2019 11:12 IST

Telangana chief minister and TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao is looking to repeat his party’s massive performance in the assembly elections in December, where the Congress and the BJP are the opposition parties, as all the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state are voting on Thursday.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the TRS had bagged 11 seats and the Congress two. The Bharatiya Janata Party, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), YSR Congress party and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) shared one each. The TDP, YSRCP and one Congress Lok Sabha member later joined the TRS.

There are 443 candidates, 418 men and 25 women, in the fray in the 17 parliamentary constituencies and 2.96 crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise in the elections in 34,604 polling stations.

Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury (Khammam), AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi (Hyderabad), state Congress chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy (Nalgonda), sitting TRS MP K Kavitha (Nizamabad), daughter of TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao, are among the prominent candidates contesting elections.

TRS leaders have repeatedly said they are looking to win 16 seats for the party, leaving the remaining one for AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, who is seeking to win for the fourth time from Hyderabad. KCR, as Telangana chief minister is known popularly, has claimed that if TRS wins 16 seats, it will play a key role in national politics.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had highlighted the “family rule” of KCR, during his campaign speeches, and warned that TRS’s association with AIMIM would mean a “speed-breaker” for Telangana’s development.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi alleged during election rallies that both the BJP and TRS have a tacit understanding and hence vote for KCR’s organisation is like voting for the national party.

Voting on Thursday will decide the fate of KCR’s daughter K Kavitha, who is seeking a second term from Nizamabad. She is up against D Arvind of the BJP and Congress leader Madhu Yashki Goud in the constituency mostly comprising OBCs, Reddys and Muslims.

The Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, with 1.5 million voters, is a special case in this parliamentary election as 185 candidates, including more than 170 farmers, are in the fray. The peasants have entered the fray to highlight their demand for remunerative prices for turmeric and red jowar.

The Election Commission has allotted 12 electronic voting machines (EVMs) in each booth in Nizamabad perhaps for the first time in the history of Indian elections.

Congress’ senior leader and former Union minister Renuka Chowdhury is looking to win from the party’s stronghold of Khamman Lok Sabha seat, which she had bagged twice in 1999 and 2004. The grand old party has won the seat 11 times so far.

Chowdhury will face the ruling TRS candidate Nama Nageswara Rao on the coveted seat. Chowdhury and Rao have defeated each other once in the past, are now bracing for another fierce electoral tussle with high stakes.

The CPI(M), backed by the CPI, has fielded in its senior leader B Venkat as its candidate. The BJP’s D Vasudeva Rao, CPI (ML-ND)’s G Venkateswara Rao, Jana Sena’s N Satyanarayana are also in the contest are also among the 23 candidates in the fray from the constituency which has a total electorate of 15,13,094 spread across seven assembly segments.

Congress’ sitting MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, the son-in-law of Apollo Hospitals chairman Pratap C Reddy and the richest contestant, is trying his luck from Chevella Lok Sabha seat against poultry baron G Ranjith Reddy of the TRS. This Reddy-dominated constituency hasa large number of settlers from Andhra, including Kammas and Kapus.

Asaduddin Owaisi of the AIMIM is seeking to retain the Hyderabad parliamentary constituency, his party’s bastion since 1989, as he faces Congress’ Firoz Khan and TRS candidate Pusthe Srikanth. The AIMIM is an ally of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi in Telangana and Owaisi has sought the victory of TRS in the remaining Lok Sabha seats in the state.

The ruling TRS will look to win the former Congress bastion of Mahbubpur as its candidate Manne Srinivasa Reddy faces DK Aruna of the BJP and Congress leader Vamsichand Reddy. Once represented by chief minister KCR and former Union minister S Jaipal Reddy in the past, this seat is important because of changed political equations after sitting MP AP Jithender Reddy from TRS and former state minister Aruna from Congress shifted to the BJP.

A Revanth Reddy of the Congress, TRS’ Marri Rajashekar Reddy and BJP leader N Ramchandra Rao will fight in out in Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency, the largest in the entire country with over 3.1 million voters. Dominated by Reddys, besides settlers from Andhra, including Kammas and Kapus, Malkajgiri was won by the TDP.

In Nalgonda, Congress’ Telangana unit chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy will face V Narasimha Reddy of the TRS. The Congress bastion was completely conquered by TRS in the recent assembly elections and Congress wants to regain its lost hold.

Votes will be counted on May 23 along with the rest of the country in Telangana.