Kadapa, February 28: The fluid political situation and fast changing equations in the district have made the MLC (local authority constituency) election scheduled for next month an interesting one.
With the Jagan factor becoming an important issue in the state politics, the Congress, Telugu Desam and Jagan group have taken the MLC election as a prestigious one as it will be a prelude to the bypolls to Pulivendula Assembly and Kadapa Lok Sabha seats.
With the MLC poll date is fast approaching, every party is engaged in protecting its voters. They may resort to horsetrading and kidnap of voters to ensure the victory of their respective candidates.
In all, 622 representatives of local bodies will cast their votes in the district in the MLC election. Of them, 50 are ZPTC members, 546 MPTCs, 26 municipal councillors (Badvel). Of the total electorate, the TDP has a strength of 122 and CPI 2. The remaining 498 elected representatives belong to the Congress.
The term of other elected civic bodies ended several months ago. About 300 of the total 498 Congress representatives are said to be loyal to Jagan.
Some of the Congress MPTCs and ZPTCs and those belong to the TDP may resort to cross voting.
Hence, the Congress and TDP are trying to keep their flock together. The political parties have set up camps at undisclosed locations and shifted their MPTCs and ZPTCs from their constituencies.
According to sources, Kamalapuram MLA G Veerasiva Reddy has shifted the MPTCs of his constituency to farmhouses in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Allagadda. He has reportedly offered Rs 1.2 lakh to each MPTC to prevent them from resorting to crossvoting. Similarly, health minister and Mydukur MLA DL Ravindra Reddy has shifted the local representatives of his constituency to Hyderabad.
Sitting MLC B Chengal Rayudu, who hails from Railway Koduru constituency, has kept 30 MPTCs from the segment in safe places in Hyderabad and Tirupati. He even paraded his supporters before chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy in Hyderabad recently as Rayudu intends to retain the MLC seat in the MLA constituency quota.
Representatives loyal to Jagan have been shifted to safe places in Devagudi, the native village of Jammalamadugu MLA C Adinarayana Reddy in Jammalamadugu mandal. While Jagan loyalists are trying to get the magic figure of 312 for the win of their candidate, the Congress and TDP are leaving no stone unturned to see that it does not happen.
With YS Vivekananda Reddy refusing to contest the MLC election to fight from Pulivendula Assembly seat in the bypoll against his sisterinlaw YS Vijayalakshmi, Jagan supporters tried to woo him to their side or at least made him contest the MLC poll. But they did not succeed in their efforts.
Finally, they have selected Jammalamadugu MLA C Adinarayana Reddy’s brother Narayana Reddy as their MLC candidate. The Congress is likely to field former Proddatur MLA N Varadarajulu Reddy, who returned to the party fold after deserting Jagan camp, for the MLC seat.
–Agencies