Heavily banking on its core support base of farmers, mainly the “podu” cultivators and the ayacutdars of the Wyra medium irrigation project, the CPI (M) is striving to clinch a victory in the upcoming elections to the Wyra Assembly constituency.
The party is contesting from the ST reserved Wyra constituency for the first time. The constituency was formed consequent to delimitation exercise in 2009. It comprises five mandals – Wyra, Enkoor, Konijerla, Singareni (Karepalli) and Julurupadu.
Missed chance
The party missed the opportunity to contest election from the seat in 2009 due to a pre-poll pact with the other opposition parties in the then grand alliance against the Congress. The CPI has won the seat as part of the grand alliance of opposition parties in 2009 elections.
In 2014 elections, the CPI (M) had a pre-poll alliance with the YSR Congress Party. The then YSR Congress party candidate B. Madanlal, backed by the CPI (M), won the seat in the previous Assembly elections.
Mr. Madanlal later joined the ruling TRS and is now seeking re-election from the same constituency for the second time.
Bahujan coalition
The CPI (M) has decided to contest the election for the first time with the support of the Bahujan Left Front (BLF), a coalition of various mass organisations, from the Wyra constituency.
It has hand-picked the party district secretariat member and the Girijana Sangham district general secretary Bukya Veerabhadram for the seat.
Veerabhadram, who played an active role in spearheading several mass movements to voice the demands of aggrieved podu cultivators for grant of pattas as per the provisions of the Recognition of Forest Rights (RoFR) Act, already embarked on an extensive campaign across the constituency.
Ayacutdars of the Wyra medium irrigation project of Nizam’s era account for a considerable chunk of voters in the constituency.
Apart from making door-to-door visits, Mr. Veerabhadram and his supporters have been trying to reconnect with the Wyra Ayacutdars reminding them of the series of protests organised by the CPI (M) and its affiliated Wyra Ayacut Parirakshana Committee to safeguard their interests in the past.
The CPI (M) campaign primarily revolves around the long-standing demand for allocation of fixed quantum of Krishna waters to the Wyra reservoir, which is also the main source of water for the TRS government’s yet to be formally commissioned Mission Bhagiratha drinking water project, so as to serve the irrigation needs of the ayacutdars of the decades old Wyra project optimally.
The ruling TRS candidate is trying to capitalise on the advantage of being nominated by his party leadership for the seat ahead of the Opposition parties by extensively conducting mass contact programmes all over the constituency. However, group rivalries and resentment among a section of the TRS leaders particularly the aggrieved ticket aspirants continue to haunt the ruling party in the constituency in the run up to the elections scheduled for December 7.
With the Congress-led Grand Alliance against the TRS firming up plans to declare the common candidate of the alliance partners soon, a keen triangular contest appears imminent in the upcoming election to the Wyra Assembly constituency.