Kadapa, April 27: The Congress and its offshoot, the YSR Congress, are competing with each other in electioneering and making all-out efforts to win the Kadapa Lok Sabha by-election on the plank of YSR’s programmes. Interestingly, both the parties claim to be the real heirs to YSR legacy. The former chief minister’s photos are seen in nook and corner of the area where Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula assembly polls are slated for May 8.
Publicity material like stickers, pamphlets, buntings, posters, flexis etc. having YSR’s images have been distributed by both the parties to all assembly segments falling under Kadapa Lok Sabha. Leaders of both the parties have been claiming about implementation of programmes and welfare schemes launched by the late leader. However, Congress Lok Sabha candidate and minister DL Ravindra Reddy is facing obstruction from some villagers while carrying “YS photo” in election campaigning.
During electioneering, YSR Congress chief and Lok Sabha candidate Jagan Mohan Reddy, while claiming himself as the real heir to YSR, urges the Kadapa voters to exercise their franchise in favour of his party in order to bring back the golden rule of YSR. He is even imitating his father’s style by use of words “I want to see smiles on the faces of all people”.
Jagan’s followers, it is learnt, have made elaborate arrangements for distribution of watches and pens embossed with YSR’s images before the election campaigning ends on May 6. All these material was prepared in Bengaluru where Jagan has a posh bungalow.
Recently, acting on a tip-off the police raided a room in Harita Hotel here and seized 150 watches and 200 pens having YSR’s image. YSR Congress leaders Jupudi Prabhakar and Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy, who were present in the room, tried to resist the police but relented. The leaders claimed that the material belonged to one Manjunath of Bengaluru who brought it to sell in Kadapa.
On the other hand, the Congress leaders, including ministers Ravindra Reddy, Kanna Lakshminarayana, Syed Ahmadullah and others have been claiming themselves as the “political heirs” of YSR on the ground that the late leader had stayed in the Congress till his last breath and worked for the party with a commitment.
In return, the Congress leadership had made him the chief minister twice and had given him free hand in implementing welfare programmes for the people. The leaders and workers have been campaigning for the party candidate by carrying YSR’s photo.
Minister and candidate DL Ravindra Reddy had faced some bitter experience when local villagers of Kalasapaadu, Nemalladinne, Peddamudiyam and other places in Kadapa obstructed his campaigning in their areas.
He was forced to return without campaigning from some of the villages. “DL Ravindra Reddy has no right to carry YSR photo since he had criticised the late leader on several occasions. We have no objection if he comes with the photos of Sonia Gandhi or chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy to campaign in our villages”, they remarked.
Going by their mood it appears that the voters in Kadapa and Pulivendula will favour YSR’s family members _ Jagan and Vijayamma _ as their representatives. It is to be seen how far YSR’s image will help the Congress to win back its seats.
—Agencies