Northeast corner is always considered auspicious as per Hindu almanac, which is strongly believed not only in astrological predictions but also in ‘Vaasthu’ (equivalent to modern civil engineering and construction). The sentiment has now become ‘politically relevant’, with most parties choosing the northeastern corner of a constituency to blow their poll bugle.
It has always been a practice for the politicians of Tirupati to launch their campaign ahead of any elections from Jeevakona and Thimmanaidupalem areas, located on the northeastern corner of the city as well as the Assembly constituency. Be it the Congress, Praja Rajyam or the YSR Congress Party, there was a strict adherence to this sentiment in the past.
NTR’s legacy
The TDP has more association with this region than others, as it was at this (then) village that the thespian and party founder N.T. Rama Rao had community lunch (sahapankthi bhojanam) with the residents of the Dalit hamlet in 1982 before launching his party. After registering a thumping victory from Tirupati, he went ahead to build a huge colony for them, which exists today. Even his successor N. Chandrababu Naidu also visited the colony a couple of times in the past. It is perhaps for this reason that the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) had no intention of shying away from following the ‘unspoken rule’, when it launched its campaign for the ensuing byelection for the Tirupati (SC) parliamentary constituency from here.
After filing nomination at Nellore on Wednesday, party candidate and former Union Minister Panabaka Lakshmi promptly reached Thimminaidupalem on Thursday, where her campaign vehicle started moving into the lanes and bylanes to woo voters. She appealed to the voters to resist the alluring offers from the ruling party and urged them to teach the government a lesson for its ‘anti-people’ measures.