Battle of heirs to reign supreme in Korutla Assembly constittuency

Assembly Constituency -Korutla

District: Jagital

MLA: Kalvakuntla Vidyasagar Rao (BRS )

Reservation: GEN

Total Voters: 2,27,521

Booths: 262

Urban Voters: 38%

Rural Voters: 62%

Male: 49.19%

Female: 50.81%

Caste & Religious Demography

• Gen + OBC: 82.80%
• SC: 14.10%
• ST: 3.20%
• Hindu: 87.60%
• Muslim: 11.80%
• Others : 0.6%

Candidates

Kalavakuntla Sanjay (BRS)

Dr Sanjay is a doctor-turned politician, a spine surgeon, by contesting from the Korutla constituency. The BRS allotted the ticket in place of his father, Korutla MLA Kalvakuntla Vidya Sagar Rao, a four-time MLA. Vidya Sagar Rao, who has now retired, requested BRS President K Chandrashekar Rao to give a chance to his son for the upcoming Assembly elections. Sanjay, might be contesting as an MLA for the first time but since 2014, he started conducting medical camps, free surgeries and many activities like building schools in the Korutla constituency.

Juvvadi Narsing Rao (INC)

Narsing Rao was born on April 4, 1962. He was the son of a three-time MLA Juvvadi Ratnakar Rao who also served as the Endowments Minister in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh State Cabinet of YS Rajasekhara Reddy from 2006 to 2009. Narsing Rao pursued MBA and he worked as APIIC director from 2005 to 2007. Since 1996, he was working as a crucial activist in the INC. In 2014 Assembly elections, he sought the INC ticket from Korutla constituency but after being denied by the party he contested as an Independent and lost in the election. Later he joined the TRS following the political situations in the constituency. After being denied a ticket from the TRS, he rejoined the INC.

Arvind Dharmapuri (BJP)

Arvind Dharmapuri was born on August 25, 1976. Currently, he is serving as an Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha from Nizamabad. Arvind is the youngest of two sons of D Srinivas who served as a three-time MLA from the INC from Nizamabad. His father also served as the president of the APCC. Arvind's family belongs to the Munnuru Kapu community, which is categorised as another Backward Class by the Indian Government.

Arvind defeated K Kavitha of the TRS, the daughter of Telangana Chief Minister, K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections Arvind, who had long promised but finally got, the order in establishing a regional Centre of the Spices Board in Nizamabad. In February 2020, the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal announced the regional centre with an IAS officer as its director. The board is tasked to provide necessary assistance to the turmeric farmers, bringing them some relief.

Geography: After delimitation in 2009, Buggaram Assembly constituency was changed to Korutla. Korutla, Metpally, Ibrahimpatnam and Mallapur are the four mandals under this Assembly constituency. Korutla and Metpally municipalities are dominated by Muslims. Korutla municipality (also Koratla) is the second largest town and revenue division in the Jagtial district in Telangana.

Background: From 1989, the INC and the TRS won four times in this Assembly Constituency. This AC is majorly dominated by Velama(Politically), electorally dominated by Padmashali and Muslims.

MLA Profile

Personal Background: K Vidyasagar Rao was born on November 10, 1953 to Paparao in Raghavpet of Jagital District. He completed his Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Vivek Vardhini Hyderabad. Both his children are doctors.

Profession: Agriculture.

Political Background: Vidhyasagar Rao joined the TDP in 1997. In 1998 by-elections from Metpalli Assembly seat, he contested for the TDP and lost by a narrow margin. In 2001 he served as ZPTC to Ibrahimpatnam mandal. In 2004 Assembly elections, he contested for Metpalli Assembly seat as an independent candidate and lost the election. In 2009, Vidyasagar Rao contested on behalf of the TRS and won over the then Revenue Minister Juvvadi Ratnakar Rao.

In February 2010, Vidyasagar Rao resigned as MLA as part of the Telangana movement. In the June 2010 by-elections, he defeated Congress candidate Juvvadi Ratnakar Rao by a huge majority for the second time.

Financial Strength: Strong

Remarks: Very Grounded and accessible to people.

Cultural/Historical/Religious Identifiers

• Valakonda Ramalingeshwara Temple
• Chenna Keshwarayalam

2014 Assembly Analysis

• Telangana sentiment wave helped the TRS in this elections. Internal politics of Juvvadi Narsinga Rao (Velama) and Komireddy Ramulu (Munnuru Kapu) of INC also helped the TRS to emerge victorious in this elections.
• Juvvadi Narsinga Rao is son of former Minister Juvvadi Ratnakar Rao, so he expected a seat from the INC but he did not get it and contested as independent .In this election, he was able to consolidate his father's follower votes towards him. He split major votes of the INC.
• Komireddy Ramulu who is a former MLA was able to secure the INC traditional votes of SC and Muslims and he was able to split Munnuru Kapu and Reddy votes.
• Surabhi Bhoomrao (Velama) got the ticket from the BJP instead of Dr Raghu (Chittineni Raghavendra Rao, (Velama) who was active in the party till then. Surabhi Bhum Rao was not able to build a strong cadre, so he was able to secure only traditional votes of the BJP and the TDP.

2018 Assembly Analysis:

• Juvvadi Narsinga Rao(Velama) contested as an independent in 2014 later and joined the TRS after 2014 elections. But he could not get the ticket from the TRS. He rejoined the Congress and contested in the 2018 elections. Komireddy Ramulu, who was in the INC till then, did not support the INC in this election.
• This faction helped the TRS to retain the election. Old age pensions and Beedi workers pensions also helped the TRS secure a victory in these elections.
• The INC was able to get its traditional vote bank along with the TDP vote bank and Juvvadi Narsinga Rao family public contacts.
• JN Venkat (Munnuru Kapu), who contested from the BJP in this election earlier, contested from the PRP and later joined the INC. His wife Sunitha worked as Ibrahimpatanam ZPTC. Before the 2018 election, he joined the BJP. After a gap with the existing BJP cadre with JN Venkat and shift of the TDP traditional vote share to the INC, the BJP lost the election.

Current Situation

• The BJP has a considerable sympathisers base but lack of strong leadership is a major issue for them. The turmeric farmers are dissatisfied with the BJP due to non fulfilment of the Turmeric Board promise.
• The INC is facing factional issues of Juvvadi Narsinga Rao and Komireddy Ramulu.