Three veteran Congress leaders who had made a mark of their own in three decades of politics in the district are now at the crossroads.
These leaders, who recently crossed over to the TDP or had decided to do so in protest against the bifurcation of the state, have not been given the tickets by that party to contest for Assembly seats.
The three are former minister D L Ravindra Reddy, MLA G Veerasiva Reddy and former MLA N Varadarajulu Reddy, who hold sway in Mydukur, Kamalapur and Proddutur Assembly constituencies respectively.
Ravindra Reddy, who started his political career in 1978 by winning as an independent candidate from Mydukur, later joined the Congress. After joining the Congress, he had contested eight times for the Assembly seat and had won six times. With changing political equations, he had shifted his political loyalties to the TDP and even met party chief N Chandrababu Naidu.
He was hoping to get the ticket for the Mydukur Assembly seat or the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat. With positive signals from the TDP, he had takne active part in campaigning for the TDP candidates in the municipal and zilla parishad elections.
But, Ravindra Reddy is finding himself on a sticky wicket now with the TDP leadership choosing Putta Sudhakar Yadav for the Mydukur Assembly seat and opting for R Srinivasulu Reddy alias Vasu, son of former minister R Rajagopal Reddy, for the Kadapa LS seat. Peeved over this, Ravindra Reddy, who was scheduled to join the TDP officially, did not attend the TDP’s ‘Praja Garjana’ held recently in the district.
Similar is the fate of Veerasiva Reddy. Starting his career as an MPP in 1987, Veerasiva had gone on to be elected as a MLA thrice from Kamalapuram. After joining the TDP, he hoped to be nominated for the Kamalapuram Assembly seat but with the party choosing Putta Narasimha Reddy, his hopes have been dashed. Veerasiva Reddy, however, is still playing an active role in the TDP and is working along with Narasimha Reddy to defeat YSRCP’s likely candidate for the seat P Ravindranath Reddy.
Another big time politician in the district, Varadarajulu Reddy also aspired for the Proddutur seat. Varadarajulu Reddy, who too had started his political life as an independent, had later joined the Congress and had won the MLA seat five times till 2009. In 2009, he had lost to his one-time follower M Linga Reddy of TDP.
While Varadarajulu Reddy joined the TDP hoing to nominated for the Proddutur Assembly seat, Linga Reddy continues to be the chosen one because the TDP feels that he has better chances to win the battle as he has been the lone TDP MLA from the district.