Sitting YSR Congress Party MLA from Mangalagiri Alla Ramakrishna Reddy, who got re-elected defeating IT Minister Nara Lokesh, is being called a giant killer. He won with a super slim majority of just 12 votes in 2014, but now his majority has increased to nearly 6,000.
Mr. Reddy told The Hindu that despite promises by the Telugu Desam Party chief and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu that farmers who gave away their land in land-pooling would be worth their while and even make them rich, the voters of the capital area, that is Tadikonda and Mangalagiri Assembly constituencies, have rejected TDP candidates and elected YSR Congress Party candidates.
He claimed that the farmers rejected the TDP as they had no faith in the party. “While taking their lands, Mr. Naidu made between 40 and 50 promises to the farmers, but how many of them were fulfilled?” he asked.
The fundamental promise of giving 1,550 yards in “fully developed layouts” for every acre given away by the farmer in land-pooling had not been fulfilled. The farmers would have surely had faith in Mr. Naidu had he given them the promised plots at least in one village, Mr. Reddy said.
Asked what type of a capital would be constructed at Amaravati — the type conceived by the TDP or the type to be conceived by the YSRCP — the MLA instantly responded that they would build the one that would benefit the people of Andhra Pradesh.
Mr. Reddy said the people of Mangalagiri did not vote for the TDP because it “terrorised” Dalits and took away their patta lands and also took away lanka (island) lands in Krishna river.
The YSRCP, on the other, stood by the farmers who were being harassed by the government, he claimed. Not just Nara Lokesh, even if Mr. Naidu had contested from Mangalagiri, he would have been defeated, he added.