SRIKAKULAM: Etcherla Assembly segment has been one of the bastions of the Telugu Desam (TDP) since its inception. Though the Etcherla Assembly constituency is in the Srikakulam district, it falls under the Vizianagaram Parliament segment. Kavali Prathibha Bharathi, who won the Etcherla seat five times and served as MLA, minister, and speaker of the legislative assembly from 1983 to 2004, lost to Kondru Murali Mohan Rao with 5,689 votes in the 2004 elections.
Though the majority population of the Etcherla Assembly segment belongs to Turpu Kapu, it has been reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) since its emergence. Garnering support from the SC community, Meesala Neelakantam won the seat under the Congress banner in the 2009 elections.
Later, the TDP candidate Kimidi Kala Venkata Rao emerged victorious in the 2014 elections. However, with constant efforts by YSRC, Gorle Kiran Kumar, who unsuccessfully fielded in the 2014 election, won the seat against Kimidi Kala Venkata Rao with 18,711 votes majority in the 2019 elections.
Anticipating the same results in the coming elections, the ruling YSRC has roped in the sitting MLA. Meanwhile, this time the TDP-BJP-JSP alliance has fielded BJP high command nominated candidate N Easwar Rao, who hails from Kamma community.
The TDP top brass swapped Kimidi Kala Venkata Rao to the Cheepurupalli Assembly segment in Vizianagaram district and nominated Kalisetti Appalanaidu, who also belongs to the Etcherla Assembly segment, for the Vizianagaram Lok Sabha constituency.
The Etcherla constituency, which comprises Etcherla, Laveru, Ranastalam, and G Sigadam mandals, has a diverse demographic composition. It became the educational hub with IIT, Dr BR Ambedkar University, and several other private and government colleges. While Ranastalam mandal is considered as a pharmaceutical hub with several companies located in the Pydibhimavaram Industrial SEZ, Laveru and G Sigadam mandals are considered to be agriculturally rich regions.
With more than 40,000 votes, Turpu Kapu is the dominant community in the Assembly segment, followed by votes of Telaga, Kalinga, Velama, SC and fisher folk communities occupying a major chunk.
The sitting YSRC MLA Gorle Kiran Kumar is confident in his victory banking on the welfare schemes implemented by the government. He asserted that he has visited 93,000 houses during the Gadapa-Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam besides providing financial assistance of `3.97 crore under CMRF to the constituency people. However, numerous commitments, including the construction of a mini reservoir at Budumuru Pedda Cheruvu, the renovation of the canals of the Madduvalasa reservoir and Narayanapuram projects, and construction of a Degree College in Ranastalam remained unfulfilled.
The YSRC government became a mute spectator on the construction of the Nuclear Power Plant at Kovvada, which was their political agenda before the 2019 elections. Gorle Kiran Kumar has been facing severe dissidence from the second-rung leaders for neglecting the cadres following corruption allegations on sand mining and land grabbing.
Therefore, the key leaders of the four mandals conducted a huge rally against their sitting MLA sloganeering ‘MLA Vaddu-Jagan Muddu’ with more than 5,000 party workers.
The second-rung leaders have been accusing MLA Kiran Kumar behind the YSRC leader and Sakshi mofussil reporter Girija Damodararao’s suicide and the attack on Jarugulla Sankara Rao of Etcherla. A few of them have been preparing the ground to file nomination as the independent candidate to defeat the MLA Kiran Kumar.
NDA alliance candidate N Easwara Rao is confident about his victory for his social work and charity in the constituency in the past 15 years. He had good relations with the TDP and Jana Sena cadre, which gave him confidence in ensuring his victory.
The saffron party candidate aims to develop infrastructure, generate employment, and provide timely irrigation water to tail-end farmers once he comes to power in the Etcherla Assembly constituency.
Speaking to TNIE, Appalanaidu, a farmer hailing from Etcherla mandal said, “There has been no development in the constituency for the past five years. The government failed to provide irrigated water to the tail-end farmers of the Madduvalasa and Narayanapuram projects. They completely ignored the farmers and unemployed youth. The YSRC leaders have focused only on land grabbings, and illegal sand mining.”
