Etela Rajender

Etela Rajender is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader. Rajender served as Telangana's Minister of Finance from 2014 to 2018 and Minister of Medical and Health and Family Welfare from 2019 to 2021 in the K Chandrashekhar Rao Cabinet. Rajender won the Kamalapur constituency in 2004 by defeating Telugu Desam Party's (TDP) Muddasani Damodar Reddy with a margin of 19,619 votes. He again won the seat in a 2008 bypoll. He won the Huzurabad seat in 2009 by defeating Congress candidate V Krishna Mohan Rao with a margin of over 15,000 votes. He again won the constituency in 2010 (bypoll), 2014 and 2018 as the TRS candidate. In 2021, KCR dismissed Etela from his Cabinet over allegations of land encroachments. He later joined the BJP and won a bypoll from Huzurabad. In the 2023 Telangana Assembly Elections, Rajender contested two seats namely Huzurabad and Gajwel but lost both. He was defeated by Bharat Rashtra Samithi's (BRS) Kaushik Reddy Padi with a margin of 16,873 votes in Huzurabad. In Gajwel, K Chandrashekhar Rao defeated Etela with a massive margin of 45,031 votes. In the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, he is contesting from the Malkajgiri constituency in Telangana against Patnam Sunitha Mahendher Reddy of Congress and BRS candidate Ragidi Laxma Reddy.