Palair to see tough fight between Congress’s Ponguleti, BRS’ Upender Reddy
KHAMMAM: The Palair Assembly constituency was established in 1962 and so far, 15 elections have been conducted. The Congress has emerged victorious 11 times. Besides the Congress, the CPM won twice, the BRS secured victory once in a bypoll and the CPI also won once.
In the upcoming elections, Palair would see tough competition between Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy from the Congress and Kandala Upender Reddy from the BRS. Locals face challenges like inadequate infrastructure which includes roads, drainage and irrigation water.
K Raghava, a resident of Nelakondaplli, said that most of the villages lack pucca roads in the constituency.
B Nagaraju of Ajaytanda in Nelakondapalli mandal said educated youth in the constituency struggle with unemployment, and the absence of a drainage system leads to health issues, especially during the rainy season.
Despite the supply of water from the Bhakta Ramadas Project, thousands of acres of land remain dry in the constituency. G Ramana a resident of Tirumalayapalem mandal said that the farmers are eagerly waiting for the completion of the Sri Sitarama Lift Irrigation Project. Residents of Nelakondapalli are also waiting for the construction of a degree college and the people of Kusumanchi mandal seek the establishment of a junior college.
The candidate from the BRS, Kandala Upender Reddy, who was elected from the Congress in 2018 and later joined the ruling party, assured the people that he would implement all the pending welfare schemes once voted to power again. He said that the ongoing development works, which are on hold due to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) in force, would be completed immediately after elections.
Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy criticised the BRS government for failing to fulfil promises such as the 2BHK housing unit, unemployment pensions, KG to PG education, crop loan waiver and implementation of the Dalit Bandhu scheme.
2,34,449 is the total number of voters in the Palair constituency. Of these, 1,21,074 are female, 1,13,370 male and five transgenders. The constituency is spread across 4 mandals: Kusumanchi, Nelakondapalli, Khammam rural and Tirumalayapalem.