Khammam: The Aswaraopet Assembly segment in Khammam is turning out to be a difficult constituency for both Congress and TRS candidates. Telugu Desam MLA Mecha Nageswara Rao, who is extending support to Congress candidate Renuka Chowdary, is unable to co-ordinate and draw in Congress leaders from the segment. Mecha is known as soft leader.
Ms Chowdary is searching for a suitable Congress leader to look after campaigning for the party. She has asked some of her trusted associates to work towards this. While the Congress has mandal-level leaders, there are no leaders at the segment-level.
Jesta Chennakesava Rao and Jesta Satyanarayana Chowdary have had a good rapport with the cadre only in Aswaraopet mandal. Likewise, Jupalli Upendra Babu and Athaluri Venkata Rama Rao are also cadre-based leaders limited to Dammapet mandal. Ms Renuka's camp has to bring in leaders from outside to coordinate with all these leaders in the Aswaraopet segment.
The TRS also has its own set of problems. The various groups like former minister Tummala Nageswara Rao, Nama Nageswara Rao and MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy lack coordination. Aswaraopet candidate Thati Venkateswarlyu, who was defeated, does not have a good rapport with leaders who are close to the Ponguleti group. The former MLA had made allegations that these leaders did not work for him.
Mr Nama Nageswara Rao had brought the issue to the notice of party leaders in Hyderabad. Taking action TRS confined him to three mandals -Annapureddypalli, Mulakalapalli and Chandrugonda, and party general secretary Nukala Naresh Reddy is looking after Aswaraopet and Dammapet mandals. However, TRS leaders in Chandrugonda and Mulakalapalli are not coordinating each other.
S. Prakash Rao, a political analyst in Aswaraopet said, “It seems that the Congress and TRS may not be able to settle these issues before the elections on April 11.
While the Congress lacks constituency level leaders, the TRS faces a major problem of coordination. This is bound to impact the poll percentage in the segment.” For the people of Aswaraopet, who are into doing farm work and raising horticulture crops, the general election does not hold much importance compared to the Assembly elections.
Keep yourself updated on Lok Sabha Elections 2019 with our round-the-clock coverage -- breaking news, updates, analyses et all. Happy reading.
