Two faces that stand out among the host of debutants of TRS MPs and MlAs are that of Balka Suman and Gadari Kishore, both students of Osmania University. They were the leading lights of the movement for Telangana State on the campus.
31-year-old Suman, who has also served as the secretary and the president of TRS’ students’ wing, has been nicknamed ‘Giant Killer’ as he defeated two-term Congress MP G Vivekanand with a thumping majority of 2,92,000 votes in Pedapally (SC) lok Sabha constituency in Adilabad.
Suman was fielded by the TRS after Vivekanand switched back to the Congress party. Suman, who was pursuing his PhD in English, said that he will raise the voice of Telangana in lok Sabha. G Kishore, a PhD student in journalism, won Tungaturti Assembly constituency by a margin of 2,441 votes. He was also associated with the TRS and played a pivotal role in the students’ agitation on the OU campus, which had turned into a hot cauldron of the movement. He was arrested several times and many cases were registered against him.
He dedicated his victory to the martyrs of Telangana. “I will dedicate myself to the development of Telangana”, he said. However, Shankaramma, mother of a student who had committed suicide for Telangana, lost in Huzurabad to Telangana Congress working president Uttam Kumar Reddy.