VIJAYAWADA: Touted as one of the keenly contested battles in the State, election to the Mangalagiri Assembly segment had hogged the limelight and finally it is sitting YSRC MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy aka RK who trounced none other than IT Minister and Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh.
The TDP leadership, after weighing various options, finally zeroed on Mangalagiri for Lokesh to make his electoral debut. Mangalagiri was never a bastion of TDP, but Lokesh did not go back on the choice made by the party leadership. Lokesh, who in an interview with TNIE, said everyone went to the stronghold of their party (to contest) but he chose Mangalagiri to make the party’s stronghold. He, however, failed.
With none other than Lokesh in the fray, the stakes went up high and punters put crores of bets on Mangalagiri election.
RK, popular among the masses for his `4 lunch and `10 for a variety of vegetables scheme, got further mileage with Jagan’s announcement that RK would be inducted into the State cabinet if the YSRC comes to power.
The angst among the farming community of Tadepalli and other villages against the TDP government for taking away their lands for the construction of Amaravati and the popularity of RK marred Lokesh’s prospects.