1. Loyal Translations in Rajahmundry:
The CM Rajasekhar Reddy calls him Manchi Anuvada-vaadi. Rajahmundry Congress MP, Vundavalli Aruna Kumar started off as a translator of Rajiv Gandhi’s speeches into Telugu, and continues to do so for Soniaji’s and Rahulji’s speeches during their tours in Andhra. He is loyal to both Sonia and YSR. When YSR decided to take on Ramoji Rao, Vundavalli volunteered to do the “frontal attack”. Such activities, party responsibilities and outside tours kept him away from common voters in Rajahmundry for long periods of time. He had to hurriedly inaugurate a new east side Railway booking counter a day before the election code came into effect. This adds to his list of other achievements such as his drive for sanitation, construction of rail over-bridges, setting up of a university and an agriculture college. Last year, however, he had to make unconditional apology to dalits for making belittling comments on Dr. Ambedkar. This is not a spectacular record for this highly visible and vocal Congress leader.
TDP and PRP sensed the vulnerability of Vundavalli and fielded strong star candidates like Murali Mohan and Krishnam Raju. Murali Mohan had an early start with campaign and may be getting the support of Eenadu/Etv. Krishnam Raju came into the fry late, but has the advantage of a very successful Praja Viaja Bheri – a mammoth public meeting held by Chiranjeevi in Rajahmundary.
2. Billionaire in Bezwada
With declared assets worth Rs. 299 crore, Congress MP (Vijayawada), Lagadapati Rajagopal is the richest person in Andhra to file nomination in this election. Interestingly, he had declared his assets to be worth Rs. 9.6 crores at the time of 2004 elections. Rajgopal claims the volume of his property has not gone up, but the value has gone up. That is whopping 31-fold increase in value.
By the way, the richest Indian to contest this election is Deepak Bhardwaj, the Bahujan Samaj Party MP candidate for West Delhi. He beats Khimji Patadia, an Independent candidate for Surendranagar with assets worth Rs 514 crore. Lagadapati comes in the third position. Also, majority of the major party candidates in this elections are crorepatis: TRS 77 per cent, TDP 63 per cent, Congress 48 per cent, PRP 31 per cent. Moreover, TDP candidates, with Rs.23 crores average asset base, top the list, followed by Congress candidates with an asset base of Rs.4 crores.
Coming back to Rajagopal, he says he does not believe that votes can be purchased by money. He declares that the performance of the Congress, that is Sonia Gandhi at the Centre and Dr. Reddy in the State, would fetch him 90 per cent of the votes and his own personal performance and charisma would fetch him the remaining 10 per cent. We have to see those 90% + 10 % votes add up to get him the highest percentage of total votes polled on the election day against Mahakootami candidate, Vallabhaneni Vamsimohan and PRP candidate, Chanumolu Rajiv.
3. Bull Racing in Chilakaluripet:
Bull races are part of the village folklore in this constituency in Guntur Dt., and the sitting Congress MLA Marri Rajasekhar is a big fan and sponsoror of these spectacular races named after his fasther-in-law (Somepalli Sambaiah Memorial State wide Annual Bull Race Competitions). In these races, a pair of bulls that pulls a solid stone slab weighing about three tonnes to the highest distance (> 2,500 feat) in 10 minutes is declared the winner. In this election, Rajasekhar is in similar situation. He has to pull the maximum number votes with his neck tied down by the weight of opposition from naxal rebels, a resurgent TDP candidate, Prathipati Pulla Rao and polarizing PRP candidate, Posani Krishna Murali.
The idiosyncratic maverick film script-writer, actor and director Posani who declared to his party workers that “Dabbulu adigina vadu, tisukuni pracharam chese vadu iddaru vedhavalu (Those who ask for money and those who take money are idiots)” does not look like a winning candidate.
4. Shifting Loyalties in Rajyampet:
On July 22, 2008, the left parties pulled out their support to the UPA government and introduced no-confidence motion as a protest against the Indo-US civil nuclear deal. Chadrababu Naidu (who was notable as the pro US and pro Capitalism CM at that time) decided to throw his weight (5 MPs) with communists to pull down Manmohan Singh’s government. Two of the five TDP MPs defied the party whip and saved the Congress Govt. For this act, TDP expelled its Chittoor MP, D.K. Adikesavulu Naidu and the Congress rewarded him with the TTD chairmanship. He was expecting to get Congress ticket to Rajampet, but was denied the seat. His son, D. A. Srinivas joined PRP and got the chance to contest as MP from Rajampet. To win, Srinivas has to defeat the well-entrenched sitting Congress MP, A. Sai Pratap who will also benefit from Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s contest from the neighboring Kadpa seat. TDP fielded Ramesh Kumar Reddy for this seat. A win for D. A. Srinivas will reflect the strength of PRP and Chiranjeevi “samajika nyayam” plank.
5. Pravasa (NRI) Pratinidhi and Chiru Abhimani in Madanapalle:
Inspired by the success of Madhu Yashki who got the Nizamabad MP seat in 2004 (got elected and became a prominent Congress leader), many NRIs from the US, UK and other countries moved to A. P. to try their luck in grabbing an MLA and MP seat. However, most of the aspirants faced disappointment and incurred loss of their time, effort and money. One successful candidate is the head of KAD DVD Overseas Operations, Chinna Vasu Deva Reddy who is contesting as a PRP candidate at Madanapalle. He has to take on TDP’s Sagar Reddy and Congress’s Shahjahan Basha. This is not a high profile contest, but it would be of interest to us to see if Vasu Deva Reddy becomes a second successful NRI story in Andhra politics.
6. Mahilala Maha pOti in Chandragiri:
Chandragiri has created a record by having four women nominated to the seat by all the four major political parties: Congress Minister for Medical Education Galla Arunakumari and Telugu Mahila president R.K. Roja are the key contestants. BJP nominated Gali Pushpalatha while the Praja Rajyam (PR) chose S. Sai Ramani Reddy. This is partly necessitated by a slight majority of women voters in this district. It is definitely nice to see this change from the mostly male dominated contests elsewhere. By the way, out of 3,655 contestants in the fray for the 294 seats, only 300 (8.2 per cent) contestants are women. TRS never nominated a woman so far except for Vijayasanthi (who does not come from TRS cadres).
Before the formation of maha kootami and NTR Jr.’s electrifying campaign, Roja provided most of the media splash for TDP. She has been very effective in targeting Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and Chiranjeevi with her “punch dialogues”, which found favor with masses. Mahesh Babu reportedly requested NTR Jr. not to campaign in this constituency to save his sister’s mother-in-law (Arunakumari). NTR Jr. appears to have “accidentally” complied with Mahesh Babu’s request. We have to see if the seat will swing between Congress and TDP or a new voter alignment throws a surprise.
posted by Govinda Bhisetti @ 1:19 PM
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