Hyderabad : Khairatabad’s political trajectory mirrors the changing contours of urban electoral politics in Hyderabad. Once considered a Congress bastion shaped largely by the influence of veteran leader P Janardhan Reddy (PJR), the constituency has evolved into a fiercely contested battleground among the Congress, BJP and BRS, with no party managing to secure a majority vote share in any assembly election since Telangana’s formation.
The shift became evident in the first election after statehood in 2014, when BJP’s Chintala Ramachandra Reddy captured the seat with 37.3% of the vote, defeating Congress candidate Danam Nagender and ending the party’s hold over the constituency. The political equations changed yet again in 2018. By then, Danam had switched from Congress to then TRS and reclaimed the seat for his new party, securing nearly 45% of the votes. BJP’s Chintala finished second with 24.5%, while Congress’s Dasoju Sravan Kumar polled 23.7%. The Telugu Desam Party broke Congress’s grip once again in 1999, with K Vijaya Rama Rao winning the seat with nearly 50% of the vote. Congress returned to power in 2004 when PJR secured a decisive victory with 53.4% of the vote.
The BRS retained the constituency in 2023, with Danam winning a second consecutive term. He secured 43.8% of the vote, while Congress candidate P Vijaya Reddy garnered 29.3% and Chintala got 24.8%. Significantly, none of the winners in the three post-Telangana elections crossed the 50% vote share mark, underscoring the constituency’s increasingly competitive nature. Congress’s BV Gurumurthy won the seat in 1967, followed by Nagam Krishna Rao in 1972. The constituency later became synonymous with PJR, who won four times in 1978, 1985, 1989 and 1994, establishing Congress’s dominance for much of the pre-Telangana period. The Congress’s run was briefly interrupted in 1983 when independent candidate M Ramchander Rao defeated PJR with 41.6% of the vote. The setback proved temporary, as PJR regained the constituency in 1985 with 48.3%.
Congress emerged as the principal challenger, pushing BJP to third place Although BRS held on to the seat. Khairatabad’s electoral history, however, stretches back far beyond the Telangana era.