Vijayawada: Dissidence in two important Assembly seats of the new capital Amaravati is haunting the ruling Telugu Desam and opposition YSR Congress parties. The Mangalagiri Assembly seat is important as several important areas of Amaravati is under Mangalagiri constituency. YSRC MLA of Mangalagiri Mr A. Ramakrishna Reddy has become a “tough nut to crack” for the TD as he had relentlessly fought against corruption and illegalities of TD Government.
But the situation has changed with the joining of several TD leaders into YSRC. Now the party high command has decided to give the constituency ticket to a BC leader. Earlier Mr Ramakrishna Reddy had showed reluctance to contest the election from Mangalagiri but recently he changed his decision and announced that he would be re-contesting from Mangalagiri. The news about the denial of YSRC ticket to Mr Reddy has swiftly spread and his supporters have started resigning from YSRC creating an unscheduled disturbance in the party.
TD, BJP and CPM councillors in the Mangalagiri municipality, Mr U. Srinu, Mr M. Venkateswara Rao and Ms V. Sakuntala with their followers joined YSRC in the presence of Mr Reddy without any information being forwarded to Mr Ramakrishna Reddy. Furthermore, the newly joined leaders started a campaign about YSRC ticket being given to Mr Srinu for the Mangalagiri seat.
The YSRC and TD parties are treating Mangalagiri seat as most important due to its presence in capital Amaravati. Opposition MLA Mr Ramakrishna Reddy was instrumental in helping farmers get stay orders for pooling their lands for Amaravati. This became a huge problem for the TD to complete the Amaravati Seed Access Road and other works. TD now wants to win Mangalagiri seat at any cost by fielding BC candidates as BCs are deciding factors in Mangalagiri.
Meanwhile YSRC has also changed its strategy and has decided to grab Mangalagiri seat without fail by giving the ticket to BC leader hence Mr Ramakrishna Reddy belonging to Reddy clan was kept away from being given the Mangalagiri ticket.
According to reports, Mr Ramakrishna Reddy saddened over the neglect of his services by YSRC, went unavailable by switching off his mobile. As many as 12 councillors and other leaders of YSRC are planning to quit YSRC, protesting the denial of ticket to Mr Reddy. Meanwhile several other YSRC leaders have plunged into action to resolve the ticket issue by pacifying the YSRC MLA and his followers.
The TD is troubled with group politics in the Tadikonda Assembly constituency where a protest is being generated because of the ticket being given to TD MLA Mr T Sravan Kumar.
The TD dissidence group is openly opposing Sravan Kumar and are conducting rallies and protests. TD high command has tried to pacify the dissident group but in vain. Tadikonda is an important Assembly seat as majority areas including Velagapudi comes under Tadikonda constituency. Hence the TD is worrying about losing the seat due to group clashes and is working to resolve group politics.
Infograph: "The capital villages Velagapudi, Lingayapalem, Uddandarayunipalem, Rayapudi, Thullur, Mandadam, Venkatapalem, Inavolu, Malkapuram, Nekkallu, Abbarajupalem, Borupalem, Sakhamuru, Nelapadu and Dondapadu comes under Tadikonda Assembly seat.
"Rest of Amaravati capital villages namely Kuragallu, Krishnayapalem, Nidamarru, Penumaka, Undavalli and Tadepalli fall under Mangalagiri Assembly seat.
"TD and YSRC are planning to win Tadikonda and Mangalagiri seats without fail to get a hold in Amaravati.
"Congress has won Tadikonda six times, TD has won three times, CPI has won one time and an independent candidate has won one time.
"Congress has won the Mangalagiri seat six times, TD has won two times, Communists have won four times and YSRC has won one time.
