GUNTUR: Macherla is set to witness a tough fight. YSRC MLA Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy is raring to win the seat for the fifth consecutive term while TDP nominee Julakanti Brahmananda Reddy is trying to wrest it from him.
Macherla region, once a hotbed of faction politics, has come a long way. Now, leaders in the region are prioritising development of infrastructure to improve living standards of the people.
Constituted with five mandals, including Macherla, Veldurthi, Durgi, Rentachintala and Karempudi, Macherla has never been a bastion of any single party as Congress won the seat five times and TDP four times since its inception.
However, after registering three consecutive wins in 1989, 1994, 1999, the TDP has not win in subsequent elections. Though the TDP changed its strategies and candidates in every election, they didn’t work in its favour. With back to back defeats, the TDP has failed to have a strong leadership in the region. The cadres too now lay scattered into several groups.
Aiming to win to get back its past glory, the TDP is working overtime to win the seat. Accordingly, it fielded Julakanti, who has a strong political background, as both his father and mother worked as MLAs in Congress and TDP in the constituency.
After a series of defeats, Julakanti kept a low profile for several years and tried his luck in 2004 elections but again he tasted defeat. He again lost the election in 2009. Though he was not given the TDP ticket in 2014 and 2019 elections, Julakanti continued as an active leader in the constituency. He was allotted the ticket now.
Meanwhile, Pinnelli’s family has a strong hold in the region. Ramakrishna, son of former MLA Pinnelli Lakshma Reddy, has been following in his father’s footsteps. He joined the Congress and made his electoral debut in 2009 and won the elections.
Later, he resigned from the Congress and as MLA, and joined the YSRC and secured victory in 2012 byelection and in 2014 and 2019 elections with a huge majority. He is exuding confidence that he would win the seat for the fifth time hands down and turn Macherla into a YSRC bastion.