GUNTUR: A fierce battle is set to unfold in Tenali Assembly constituency between the ruling YSRC and the JSP-TDP-BJP combine. While sitting YSRC MLA Annabathuni Sivakumar is keen on retaining Tenali seat for the second consecutive time, JSP nominee Nadendla Manohar is determined to bag it. Famously known as Andhra Paris, Tenali is the land of rich and diverse culture, and has a special place in the Indian freedom struggle.
Ranarang Chowk with seven pillars erected in memory of the martyrs, who were shot dead by the British during the Quit India Movement, still instills the sense of patriotism among people.
The constituency came into existence in 1951 as per the Delimitation Orders (1951), and is one of the seven Assembly segments in Guntur Lok Sabha constituency.
It is a constituency of sentiment as whichever party wins Tenali seat, comes into power in the State. The Assembly segment, comprising Tenali and Kollipara mandals, was a Congress bastion once as won the seat seven times since 1952. The TDP bagged the seat five times.
Alapati Venkataramaiah, Annabathuni Satyanarayana and Nadendla Bhaskar Rao were strong leaders in the region. Following in their footsteps, their heirs former TDP MLA Rajendra Prasad, sitting YSRC MLA Sivakumar, and former Assembly Speaker Manohar have been continuing their sway in Tenali politics for the past two decades. Manohar won as an MLA in 2004 and 2009 on Congress ticket.
In 2014, Rajendra Prasad of TDP was elected. In the last election, he was defeated by Sivakumar. As part of the seat sharing among tripartite alliance, the JSP got Tenali, much to the disappointment of TDP constituency incharge Rajendra Prasad. Though he initially distanced himself from the election campaign, after persuasion by the party leadership, he extended his full support to Manohar. The JSP candidate is confident of victory with the support of alliance partners. The YSRC, which intensified its electioneering, laid emphasis on welfare schemes implemented by the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government and allotment of house sites to 27,000 people and development of basic infrastructure. The JSP and TDP are emphasising that development of the Assembly constituency could only be possible with the tripartite alliance.
The YSRC’s claims and the tripartite alliance’s promises evoked a mixed response from the people.
K Ramana Priya, a private school teacher, said, “I received a house site at Jagananna Colony, a dream I never thought would be fulfilled. The development of the constituency in the last five years was also not bad. Moreover, Manohar had not been in the constituency for the past 15 years, and he started visiting Tenali just a few months before the elections. We want a leader who will be available to us all the time.”
T Sambaiah, a goldsmith, opined that the TDP would have benefited from the anti-incumbency and might have won the seat if Rajendra Prasad was fielded. “In the past two decades, Congress, TDP and YSRC MLAs have failed to develop the constituency. During the elections, politicians make several promises to address long pending issues, but fulfil only a few,” he observed.