Will YSRC torpedo defection-hit TDP in decisive capital district?

GUNTUR: There is a general sentiment that any party which wins the majority of Assembly seats in Guntur district will form the government in the State. This may be true to some extent as the district has 17 Assembly and three Lok Sabha seats. 

In the 2014 elections, the TDP walked away with 12 Assembly seats and two MP seats. Its nearest rival YSR Congress bagged five Assembly seats.

While the former formed the government for the first in the State after bifurcation, the latter ended up in the Opposition. In undivided Andhra Pradesh, the Congress had won 14 Assembly constituencies and three MP seats in 2009 and came back to power under the leadership of late YS Rajasekhara Reddy.

The TDP had won five Assembly segments.

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In the 2014 elections, the TDP walked away with 12 Assembly seats and two MP seats. Its nearest rival YSR Congress bagged five Assembly seats.

All these results in the previous elections speak well of the key role the district plays in deciding the fortunes of a political party.

Guntur district has another distinction. Four of 21 chief ministers in the undivided Andhra Pradesh hailed from the district. Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, the fifth CM of the State, was from Guntur. So were Bhavanam Venkatarami Reddy and Nadendla Bhaskara Rao, who lasted a few days and Konijeti Rosaiah. 

This general election, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy’s grandson Kasu Mahesh Reddy is in the fray from Gurazala Assembly constituency on YSRC ticket. Similarly, Nadendla Bhaskara Rao’s son and former Speaker of AP Assembly Nadendla Manohar is contesting from Tenali on Jana Sena ticket.

Understandably, the ruling party and the Opposition YSRC are moving heaven and earth to win maximum number of seats in the district. 

The YSRC seems to be holding its flock together in the district as none of its MLAs has left the party.  But, the situation in the TDP is different.

Former minister Ravela Kishore Babu resigned from the party and joined the Jana Sena. The latest to defect from the TDP is ZP chairperson Sk Johny Moon.

She is now in the YSRC. ZP vice chairman Vadlamudi Purnachandra Rao too followed suit. He is holding talks with his supporters about his next course of action. TDP BC cell district president B Srinivasa Yadav too left and secured Jana Sena ticket to contest Guntur Lok Sabha seat.   

The district recorded a handsome voter turnout in the previous elections. It was 78 per cent in 20o9 elections, 2.5% more than in the State and the highest in the history of combined Andhra Pradesh. The highest voter turnout of 84% was registered in the district in the 2014 elections. 

There are 37.51 lakh enrolled voters in the district. District Collector K Sasidhar has given top priority to ensure enrolment of fresh voters and relentlessly conducted campaign in this direction. His efforts have yielded dividends as 50,000 have enrolled on a single day. In appreciation of the efforts of the Guntur administration, former State Chief Election Officer (CEO) RP Sisodia participated in the programme to mark the record enrolment of voters on a day.