GUNTUR: A peculiar sentiment prevails in the erstwhile Guntur district, as the electorate believe that the party which bags victory in Tenali Assembly constituency will form the government in the State.
The belief has been there since 1983, when Annabathuni Satyanarayana of TDP won the segment and the same party has formed the government in the State. The same trend was witnessed in the 1985 elections.
Since then, the party that wins in Tenali has been forming the State government in every election.
With sitting YSRC MLA Annabathuni Sivakumar and JSP Political Affairs Committee Chairman and three time MLA Nadendla Manohar in poll fray, the stakes have never been higher than now, for both YSRC and TDP-JSP-BJP alliance.
As counting for the general elections will be held on June 4, the political leaders are eager to know the Tenali result. Three-time MLA Alapati Venkataramaiah, Annabathuni Satyanarayana and Nadendla Bhaskar Rao are the strong leaders in the region.
It is to be noted that Satyanarayana won as MLA two times, Bhaskar Rao won as MLA in 1989 from Congress, and his party came to power.
Following in their footsteps, their heirs former TDP MLA Rajendra Prasad, YSRC MLA Sivakumar, and Manohar have been continuing their sway in Tenali politics for the past two decades.
The Congress came to power in 2004 and 2009 when Nadendla Manohar won from Tenali. After the State bifurcation, Alapati Rajendra Prasad of TDP won in 2014, and his party came to power. In 2019, Annabathuni Sivakumar of YSRC won from Tenali, and his party formed the government. With Tenali making into national headlines with the video of Sivakumar slapping a voter and later being slapped by the same person which went viral, the public and the political analysts are waiting for the results with bated breath.