AP ELECTIONS: A TALE OF TWO CITIES

By M H Ahssan

The geopolitical dynamics of Rayalaseema will test the clout of prominent personalities. So who will capture Tirupati? Who will lord over Kadapa?

The pilgrim town of three lakhs, Tirupati, is always brimming with devouts waiting for a darshan of the Lord on the hills in Tirumala, so much so that it is difficult to distinguish between a permanent resident and a temporary visitor. This being the case, it is well nigh impossible to pick up electoral trends in the rapidly growing town. But local analysts swear that Tirupati will vote for Chiranjeevi in the upcoming elections. Going by utterances of brother-in-law Allu Aravind, Tirupati - from where Prajarajyam (PR) was launched late last year - will be one of the two constituencies from which the mega star will contest.

“Chiranjeevi garu will certainly win from this constituency. People are looking for a change and will settle for him,” claims R Venkaiah, owner of Sindhuri Park hotel who also looks after Prajarajyam affairs in Tirupati. Analysts also feel that Chiranjeevi will make it though PR has serious party problems in Tirupati. “The party machinery is in disarray or rather there is no party organisation here. This means there is no machinery to convert support to votes,” says a political analyst.

Travelling on the road from Tirupati in a north westerly direction, you soon enter Kadapa, the home district of Rajasekhara Reddy. But you are still in Chiranjeevi territory. Large banners of a much younger Chiranjeevi dot the road from the town of Rajampet. “There are a lot of Balijas, the Rayalaseema version of Kapus, here. All of them will vote for Prajarajyam,” say local analysts. Rajampet, although in Kadapa district, is a separate Lok Sabha seat and the present incumbent is a Congressman.

It is only after you leave Rajampet and move towards Kadapa that you start feeling the influence of Rajasekhara Reddy and his son Jagan and by the time you enter the 4.5 lakh strong Kadapa town, this presence is overpowering. Festoons and large cut outs of Jagan dominate the half-modern, half-decrepit town that was once reputed to be second only in backwardness to Adilabad. “Jagan is likely to make his political debut for the Lok Sabha from here,” says a local analyst. The present incumbent is Jagan’s uncle and Rajasekhara Reddy’s younger brother Vivekananda Reddy but the local buzz is that the latter has been persuaded to vacate the seat for nephew dear.

Rajasekhara Reddy himself used to represent Kadapa town in Lok Sabha in the past and just as he did in Pulivendula, is pumping in huge moneys and resources to recreate Kadapa. “We have spent Rs 20 crore in the last two-anda-half years to improve the distribution system in the city,” says divisional engineer of electricity distribution N Srinivasulu. “Road expansions, widening and double laning of roads are in full swing all over Kadapa town and the entire district,” says R & B executive engineer Vivekananda Reddy. He adds: “Twenty bridges are being constructed across various rivers at a cost of Rs 66 crore.” In Kadapa city itself, seven bridges have been constructed over the dry Buggawanka river.

Other infrastructure is also being upgraded. A brand new zilla parishad conference hall has been constructed at the cost of Rs 8 crore. A branch of Hyderabad Public School is being opened and so is a Shilparamam like that in Hyderabad. A brand new Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences on a huge campus has started operating and an international cricket stadium named after Rajasekhara Reddy’s father Raja Reddy is being built. An IT park has also been planned in the vicinity of the town. “It is a good start but a lot more remains to be done,” says a local resident pointing out to the dirtier part of the city.

Yet all this has not deterred IT entrepreneur Srikant Reddy who is being fielded by TDP to challenge Jagan. Srikant lives in Hyderabad, but even his festoons dot Kadapa and his neighbourhood. More than that, Srikant’s father - former AP High Court chief justice Chenna Kesava Reddy - though still alive, has a life -size statue on a main road in town. “This is a Reddy dominated town and district. Here only a Reddy can take on a Reddy,” laments a local analyst.

The Reddys however do not comprise more than 15 per cent of the population of the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat; Balijas reputedly comprise 30 per cent, Muslims about 15 per cent and other backward castes and SCs around 45 per cent. “In Kadapa town, Muslims constitute around 35 per cent of the population,” says TDP corporator Subhan Pasha, hoping for an MLA seat.

“We want to rid the place of mafia,” says Srikant’s cousin Mallikarjun, but some Congress supporters say that the place was really controlled by mafia men some 20 years ago, not now. “In the 1980s there used to be kidnappings and the law and order situation was really bad. Now things are much better. With increasing economic opportunities even criminal elements have changed their priorities,” a local resident says. Others claim that Srikant is in the fray only because of personal reasons. They say that he was earlier very thick with Vivekananda Reddy, but has since fallen out, so his electoral fight is his own way of getting even with the enemy.