4 hot seats to watch out for in Telangana polls 2023, including KCR's Kamareddy

The state of Telangana is gearing up for elections on November 30, 2023, with 119 seats up for grabs on the same day. Despite being a stronghold of the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) (formerly TRS), the southern state faces stiff competition from the Indian National Congress (INC).

On the other hand, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has yet to make significant inroads into the state and is entering the elections with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the leading face of their campaign.

The Telangana elections will showcase prominent figures contesting from their respective constituencies.

Here are four hot seats to watch in the upcoming elections:

Chandrayangutta 

• All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi is contesting from this seat for the sixth time.

• Known for his controversial speeches, Akbaruddin has consistently won the family seat since unseating his father’s rival, Amanullah Khan, in 1999.

• In 2018, Akbaruddin secured the seat with 67.95% of the votes. However, this time, he has surprised many by nominating his son, Nooruddin Owaisi, as a backup candidate.

• On November 8, Nooruddin Owaisi, accompanied by his father Akbaruddin Owaisi, filed his nomination as a backup candidate.
• Akbaruddin is facing competition from BJP’s Satyanarayana Mudiraj, BRS’s M. Sitharam Reddy, and INC’s Boya Nagesh.

Goshamahal 

• The Goshamahal seat is another hotly contested one in the Telangana elections, with BJP’s controversial and sole MLA Raja Singh fielded once again by the party.

• Singh, who was suspended by the party after an inflammatory speech, was reinstated a day before the party announced its candidates for the elections.

• In 2018, out of the 118 seats contested by the BJP, Goshamahal was the only seat won by the party. Singh has held onto this bastion since 2014 after winning it from Congress and retaining it in 2018.
• Singh is expected to face tough competition from BRS candidate Nand Kishore Vyas, with INC’s Mogili Sunitha playing the spoiler role.

Jubilee Hills 

• The Jubilee Hills seat in the capital city of Hyderabad is another closely watched seat as former cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin has been fielded by the Congress to challenge the TRS.
• Azharuddin, previously elected as the MP from UP’s Moradabad seat on a Congress ticket in 2009, didn’t contest the seat in 2014.
• The Jubilee Hills seat has changed hands between Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and BRS in the past elections.
• The Congress is hopeful of winning it back in 2023, relying on the popularity of Mohammed Azharuddin.
• Azharuddin faces competition from BRS’s Maganti Gopinath and BJP’s Lankala Deepak Reddy. In 2018, Maganti Gopinath won the seat with 44.3% of the votes.

Kamareddy 

• The Kamareddy seat is another key battleground in the Telangana elections as Chief Minister Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao has filed the nomination from this seat, in addition to representing the Gajwel constituency in the outgoing assembly.

• Kamareddy is a TRS stronghold, having been won by TRS candidate Gampa Govardhan four times in 2009, 2011, 2014, and 2018.

• Congress has fielded its state president, Revanth Reddy, against KCR, promising an exciting contest as the seat was once a Congress bastion too. KCR, on the other hand, has consistently won the Gajwel constituency since 2014.

The counting of votes will take place on December 3, 2023.