THE NEW CHALLENGER

Eatala Rajender, 58, whom Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao sacked as finance minister in May 2021 but did not expel from the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, is coming back to bite. He resigned as MLA in June 2021 to contest the Huzurabad bypoll on a BJP ticket and won by a big margin. He now heads the party’s poaching panel ahead of the 2023 state polls. Last heard, he is preparing to take on KCR in Gajwel, the seat from where the latter began his political journey as the CM.