Amaravati: Pulivendula and Kuppam in Andhra Pradesh assume the status of key constituencies as Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu will be contesting from there respectively in the upcoming assembly polls.
According to the EC announcement on Saturday, elections will be held on May 13.
Even the Mangalagiri constituency enjoys similar limelight in the backdrop of Nara Lokesh, son of Naidu, a former CM, aiming to represent it.
Pulivendula
Located in the Kadapa district of the Rayalaseema region of the southern state, Pulivendula has been a bastion of Jagan’s family for decades together. Prior to him the segment was represented by his late father and former CM Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
By virtue of being the home constituency of the CM, Pulivedula received special attention. On March 10, Jagan Mohan Reddy unveiled a slew of projects in Pulivendula town.
After Jagan became the CM the state government issued a notification upgrading Pulivendula into a first grade municipality from a second grade one.
With 2.27 lakh voters, who include 1.1 lakh male and an equal number of female voters and 19 third-gender voters, the constituency was given utmost priority and enjoys excellent civic infrastructure and educational institutions including a medical college.
V Varaprasad, Pulivendula municipal chairman, claimed that there are no major or long pending issues here but a case of assigned land being sub judice.
He noted that a government official in the past took back some assigned land from Dalits who went to the Court to reclaim it and the case is subjudice.
Meanwhile, TDP’s M Ravindranath Reddy has been announced as the NDA alliance’s candidate to take on Jagan Mohan Reddy in the forthcoming polls in the Pulivendula constituency.
Kuppam
Located at the southwestern tip of Andhra Pradesh, Kuppam has been represented by the TDP supremo Naidu multiple times. It has 2.23 lakh voters with 1.1 lakh males and an equal number of females and 18 third gender.
YSRCP has announced 35-year-old Krishna Raghava Jayendra Bharat to take on Naidu in the 2024 Assembly elections.
Son of a former IAS officer, K Chandramouli, Bharat noted that though Naidu has been representing Kuppam for a long time, he has left enough vacuum for YSRCP to enter and fill it in the past five years.
“Lots of unresolved issues but some of them we could solve. The ever-pending Handri Neva Sujala Sravanti (HNSS) canal supposed to bring Krishna river waters from Srisailam Dam to Kuppam was inaugurated by the CM last month on February 26. That was a long pending issue which we could solve,” Bharat told PTI.
According to Bharat, who has settled down in Kuppam for the past five years, Naidu started this project but the YSRCP regime led by Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy completed it.
Further, he noted that Naidu’s biggest failure is his inability to show employment to local youth, who are being compelled to relocate to Bengaluru for jobs.
Juxtaposing Kuppam and Pulivendula constituencies, which have the same profile of being represented by politicians who went on to become chief ministers, Bharat said the former lagged when compared to the latter in terms of infrastructure and amenities.
To buck this trend, he said the YSRCP government paid special attention on Kuppam constituency, located at one extremity of the southern state, bordering Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, by transforming it into a revenue division to end the requirement of locals travelling long distances like earlier to get work done in government offices.
Observing that Naidu had taken Kuppam for granted without a proper challenger until now, Bharat said the scenario would change now, contending that he could do an Amethi-like performance where Smriti Irani had defeated Rahul Gandhi.
Meanwhile, YSRCP did manage to win a good number of local bodies’ elections in Kuppam over the past five years.
“He (Naidu) always felt that it is his bastion, nobody to challenge or question him or his authority. All these things were neglected and we started working on those. Hopefully we are very confident, this time there will be a change,” added Bharat, adding that Naidu had only laid a few roads at the most in Kuppam constituency.
Occupying a strategic location at the centre of the state between Guntur town and Vijayawada city, Mangalagiri has a voter base of 2.8 lakh people, out of whom 1.3 lakh are male, 1.4 lakh female and 19 third gender voters.
TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh contesting to represent this constituency in 2019 and also hosting parts of Naidu’s pet project, Amaravati capital city, have skyrocketed Mangalagiri profile to the hilt.
YSRCP’s A Ramakrishna Reddy defeated Lokesh in 2019 but did not find favour with the YSRCP chief this time around to take on Lokesh again.
M Lavanya from YSRCP is expected to challenge Lokesh in the election.
Recently, Naidu announced his son Lokesh as the TDP candidate for the 2024 Mangalagiri Assembly election.
D Shankar Reddy, a local YSRCP leader termed the Amaravati capital city issue as the biggest issue of the Mangalagiri constituency.
The Amaravati capital city plans of Naidu came to a grinding halt as the state government transitioned from TDP’s hands to YSRCP’s hands in 2019, resulting in a major controversy and court cases.
