Last Updated: August 23, 2023, 17:41 IST
Thatikonda Rajaiah was denied a ticket by his party, which had fielded another former Deputy CM. (Twitter/IANS)
After Rajaiah was denied a ticket, a group of people were seen physically lifting him up, even as his supporters shouted his name and hailed him as a leader
Former Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Thatikonda Rajaiah became emotional and broke down publicly after he was denied a ticket by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) for the upcoming assembly elections.
In a purported video, Rajaiah, who is a sitting MLA from Station Ghanpur, starpolted sobbing as he kneeled down before the statue of Dr B. R. Ambedkar in his constituency.
A group of people were seen physically lifting him up, even as his supporters shouted his name and hailed him as a leader. Rajaiah then walked with the people who had gathered in his support.
He was denied a ticket by his party, which had fielded another former Deputy CM and senior leader Kadiyam Srihari from his seat on Tuesday.
He also addressed his supporters at his office, and said that Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has promised him a higher position, adding that he would obey the instructions.
Fight for the ticket
In the recent weeks, a bitter fight for the constituency seat between supporters of Rajaiah and Srihari was seen, as both leaders wanted it.
On Monday, KCR announced BRS candidates for 115 assembly seats, that chose Srihari. The party has also retained 95 per cent of the sitting MLAs.
Telangana assembly elections will be held somewhere between November and December this year.
Rajaiah political journey
The former deputy CM has been at the seat since 2009. He became one of the two deputies of KCR.
He was however, taken out of the cabinet in 2015, after he had allegations of corruption in the health department against him and has been getting sidelined in the party following this.
In 2018, he was given a party ticket from the the same constituency and he retained the seat.
However this year, he was denied a ticket after allegations of sexual harassment from a village sarpanch surfaced.
With agency inputs
