JP gets BJP’s support for his LS contest from Malkajgiri?

Unconfirmed reports say Lok Satta’s JP got BJP’s support for his contest from Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency. Few days ago, JP supported BJP and defended Modi’s role during the Gujarat pogrom. He kick-started his campaign for the LS fight few days ago and as his party man CVL Narasimha Rao said yesterday, JP seems to be determined to go to Lok Sabha instead of representing Kukatpally, which was his stated position before bifurcation.

The constituency with seven Assembly segments — Medchal, Secunderabad Cantonment (SC), Malkajgiri, Qutbullapur, Kukatpalli, Uppal and L.B. Nagar — is being eyed because it has a large chunk of middle class population from other regions of the State. The caste combination of the Lok Sabha constituency also seemed to have helped the poll strategists. While Reddys and Kammas are equal in dominance across the constituency with over 20% vote share each, Brahmins with over 80,000 votes form a significant chunk in the Assembly segments like Malkajgiri, Kukatpally, and L B Nagar while Christians and Dalits are concentrated in and around Secunderabad Cantonment (SC). There are not more than 50,000 Muslim voters in the constituency, perhaps because of which the MIM did not field its candidate in the last elections. Then, 3,88,368 votes were secured by the winning Congress candidate Sarve Satyanarayana, while TDP candidate Bhimsen T, secured 2,95,042 votes and T Devender Goud, who is now a TDP Rajya Sabha member, bagged 2,38,886 votes as the PRP candidate.