HYDERABAD: Seemandhra voter has rejected outright not only Jai Samaikyandhra Party founded by former chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy but also leaders like former ministers TG Venkatesh, Eerasu Pratap Reddy and S Shailajanath, who professed that they were the champions of Samaikyandhra.
Kiran Reddy has floated the Jai Samaikyandhra Party (JSP) even as his trusted lieutenants began parting company with him.
By the time elections were held, no leader worth his salt stayed with Kiran Reddy. Interestingly, Kiran Reddy did not contest the election. Instead, he had fielded his brother N Kishan Kumar Reddy from his
native Pileru Assembly constituency. The only consolation was that Kishan Reddy finished second by polling 15,313 votes. A majority of candidates did not poll even 1,000 votes.
Jai Samaikyandhra Party contested 23 of 25 Lok Sabha and 152 of the 175 Assembly seats in Seemandhra. In Telangana, it contested four Lok Sabha seats and 19 Assembly segments. The party polled 2,20,762 votes, which is 0.4 percent of the total votes polled.
As the Centre introduced the bill in Parliament for division of the state, Kiran Reddy, with no option left, demitted office as chief minister. By the time the election notification came, several of his trusted men left in search of greener pastures, including Ganta Srinivasa Rao, S Sailajanath and Pithani Satyanarayana.
The MPs who stood by him began slipping away one by one. They included A Sai Pratap, Lagadapati Rajagopal and V Arun Kumar (both of them did not contest the elections) and Rayapati Sambasiva Rao.
The parting kick was given by Sabbam Hari who was JSP’s candidate for Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha seat. A day ahead of polling on May 7, Hari declared that he was retiring from contest and appealed to the people to support BJP candidate K Hari Babu.
Said JSP spokesperon N Tulasi Reddy: “We lost the elections because of several factors, just as Karna’s fall which was due to a thousand reasons. We were victims of sabotage by our own people.”
When it came to former ministers TG Venkatesh, Erasu Pratap Reddy and S Shailajanath, the voter was not kind ot them either. Venkatesh lost to YSRC’s SV Mohan Reddy in Kurnool by a margin of 3,479 votes, while Pratap Reddy, who contested from Panyam, finished third, losing to YSRC candidate G Charita Reddy. Sailajanath too finished third in Singanamala Assembly constituency in Anantapur district. The winner there was TDP”s Yamini Bala, who won with a margin of 4,584 votes over YSRC candidate J Padmavathi.
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