Will five-time BRS MLA Bajireddy Goverdhan make it this time?

Will five-time BRS MLA Bajireddy Goverdhan make it this time?

He has taken on the outlawed Maoists head on, challenging their might in the early 90s in the Naxal-hit Sirikonda mandal and survived two attempts on his life by the former.

At a time when local leaders dreaded the very word ‘Annalu’ (term used for Naxalites), five-time MLA Bajireddy Goverdhan has come a long way and has the distinction of winning successive elections on Congress as well as BRS (formerly TRS) tickets from four different constituencies — Armoor, Banswada, Dichpally and Nizamabad Rural. After delimitation, Nizamabad Rural was carved out as a constituency as Dichpally ceased to be a constituency.

In his seventh straight election, the 69-year-old BRS MLA is fighting a determined battle to retain the Nizamabad Rural seat for the third time in a row. He is pitted against Dr. Bhupati Reddy of the Congress and Dinesh Kumar of the BJP.

Contesting his first election against his political guru Shanigaram Santosh Reddy in Armoor as a rebel Congress candidate, he showed his might. His presence in the poll fray ensured Mr. Santosh Reddy lost the elections. A die-hard supporter of the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, he got the Congress ticket to win the election from Armoor in 1999.

He was shifted to Banswada in 2004 only to humble senior politician Parige Srinivas Reddy. He lost the 2009 elections from Banswada and shifted to Dichpally constituency again to create history by winning the seat as BRS (then TRS) candidate in 2014, the first election after creation of Telangana. He contested again in 2018 and retained the seat.

His larger than life image among people is basically because of his strong opposition to the naxalite movement. Born in Chimanpally, a remote village in Sirikonda mandal, Mr. Goverdhan was the Police Patel when he declared an open war on the naxalites.

His guts to take on the Naxals when no other leader dared to, earned him a hero’s worship from the common man. Slowly but steadily, he began his political career as a Sarpanch, MPTC and then MPP.