Call it sheer coincidence or peculiarity, the party which wins the Kadapa Assembly seat comes to power and rules the state. And mind you, this ‘phenomenon’ has been going on since the 1970s. Whether it happens this time around remains to be seen.
Over the past four decades, TDP and Congress have been winning the seat and incidentally, whichever candidate won the election here, his party came to power in the state. TDP’s S A Khaleel Basha won the seat in 1994 and 1999 and N Chandrababu Naidu ruled the state during the time. In the next two elections—2004 and 2009—N Md Ahmedullah of Congress won the seat and Y S Rajasekhara Reddy formed the government both times.
This year, however, an interesting contest is on the cards in the changed scenario. The state is divided and it has to be seen whether the party which wins the Kadapa Assembly seat will come to power in Seemandhra.
Among the electorate of more than 2.5 lakh, Muslims and Balijas hold the key to any party’s victory. In the last four elections, Muslim candidates won the elections and this time too, the Congress and YSRC have fielded Muslims from the constituency. The Congress, after much dilly-dallying, fielded a religious scholar and is facing dissidence from its rank and file.
Former minorities welfare minister N Md Ahmedullah initially proposed his son Ashraf’s name for the seat and the party leadership too gave its nod. But in the last minute, Ahmedullah decided not to field his son and instead, gave chance to religious scholar Maqdoom Moulana Saheb which did not go down well with the party leaders.
District Congress Committee president Makam Ashok Kumar, MLC Shaik Hussain and some others, who aspired to the seat, were peeved over Ahmedullah’s attitude and are unlikely to support the Congress candidate. The YSRC, a new entrant into the state politics, has fielded S B Amjad Basha and is making an all out effort to wrest the seat.
The TDP, however, is in a strange situation. The Kadapa Assembly seat has gone to the BJP in a seat-sharing arrangement but party leaders want its candidate to contest the seat. TDP local leaders are apprehensive that they will lose Muslim votes by allying with the BJP. Terming it a ‘friendly fight’, the party’s Kadapa MP seat aspirant R Srinivasulu Reddy prevailed upon the party leadership and fielded a Balija leader, S Durga Prasad, for the seat bringing fissures in the alliance.
BJP’s A Harinath Reddy is riding high on the Modi wave and hopes to win the seat. Another new entrant, Jai Samaikyandhra Party, fielded S Ramachandra Reddy who took an active part in the united state agitation.
The district chiefs of two other parties—CPI(M) and CPI—B Narayana and G Eswaraiah respectively are also in the fray and both are hoping that their agitations for housing for the poor and others might get them some votes.