PARVATHIPURAM: At a time when TDP chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu is making all out efforts to return to power in the ensuing elections with the help of his alliance partners JSP and BJP, the party seems to be facing dissidence in SC and ST reserved Assembly constituencies of Parvathipuram-Manyam district.
The district has been a bastion of the ruling YSRC since its inception. The YSRC won Salur (ST), Kurupam (ST), and Palakonda (ST) Assembly segments in the 2014 elections. It lost only Parvathipuram (SC) segment by a small margin. In the 2019 elections, the YSRC made a clean sweep in the district by winning all the seats.
Deputy Chief Minister (Tribal Welfare) Peedika Rajanna Dora (Salur), former Deputy Chief Minister Pamula Pushpa Srivani (Kurupam), and Viswasaraya Kalavathi (Palakonda) have been determined to score a hat-trick wins in the ensuing elections. Alajangi Jogarao has intensified his efforts to win from Parvathipuram for the second time.
The TDP had named candidates for three of the Assembly segments in the first list. Parvathipuram was allotted to Bonela Vijaya Chandra, Kurupam to Toyyaka Jagadeeswari, and Salur to Gummadi Sandhyarani.
Vijaya Chandra and Jagadeeswari are contesting the elections for the first time. Sandhyarani unsuccessfully contested from Salur in 2009 and from Araku Lok Sabha seat in 2014.
Former MLA Bobbili Chiranjeevulu had failed to get ticket from Parvathipuram. Though Parvathipuram is an SC reserved constituency, the majority of electorate belongs to BCs, who pay a key role in the electoral fortunes of candidates. Dwarapureddy Jagadeesh, who hails from Koppula Velama community, and Chiranjeevulu are said to be opposing the candidature of Vijaya Chandra on the pretext that he is a non-local.
Same is the case with Kurupam ST reserved constituency where the BC communities are dominant. Datti Laxmana Rao, who hails from Koppala Velama community, had proposed the names of Biddika Padmavathi and Puvvala Lavanya for Kurupam seat. However, the TDP leadership had allotted the seat to Jagadeeswari, who got the support of former minister Satrucharla Vijaya Rama Raju.
Now, Laxmana Rao group has started alleging that Satrucharla backed a weak candidate to help Pushpa Srivani in the elections. In Salur, the TDP leadership has fielded Sandhyarani, replacing former minister Rajendra Pratap Bhanj Deo, who unsuccessfully contested from the seat in the last two elections. He is said to be opposing the candidature of Sandhyarani. Though Naidu spoke to the dissidents and directed them to cooperate with the party’s official candidates in the elections, the situation at the ground level seems to be quite different.
Speaking to TNIE, a senior leader from Kurupam said, “Parvathipuram-Manyam Agency is a bastion of the YSRC. It is not easy to defeat the ruling party candidates in the Assembly elections. The TDP should strive hard to wrest the Assembly seats from the YSRC. I hope that the TDP leadership will take stringent measures to end dissidence in the party as there is still enough time for it.”