Anantapur District: 4 senior leaders frustrated as they miss the bus

Anantapur: Four unlucky candidates who missed the bus are a frustrated lot in the TDP and YSRCP parties.

The unlucky candidates include senior TDP leader and ex-MLA V Prabhakar Chowdary in Anantapur Assembly constituency and former TDP MLA Gonuguntla Suryanarayana in Dharmavaram.

Two other candidates in YSRCP include Jonnalagadda Padmavathi of Singanamala and Kapu Ramachandra Reddy of Rayadurg Assembly constituency. These four leaders are seniors in their respective parties and were supposed to be influential and having recognition in their parties but they lost to fate and a couple of them to alliance compulsions.

The first in the category is TDP ex-MLA Prabhakar Chowdary of Anantapur Assembly constituency.

Prabhakar entertained hope until the last minute when the constituency was tossed between TDP and Jana Sena Party. Finally, when the TDP leadership decided to retain the constituency with it, Prabhakar was in high spirits but a mandal level leader junior to him came from no where and hijacked the party ticket, leaving Prabhakar flabbergasted.

This proved a point that nobody can take the party or their own one-upmanship for granted. For the ruling party intelligence reports matter whereas for TDP public opinion conveyed through a party app from constituencies played a role in sidelining influential people and bringing to the centre stage novices in the party, much to the chagrin of leaders who take their leadership in constituencies for granted. A tech-savy party president N Chandrababu Naidu relies more on realistic opinion gathering machinery.

Daggubati Venkateswara Prasad, a novice and mandal level leader scored points over Prabhakar who relied more on his proximity with party national president and contacts in the State party who can speak for him.

Another contact that added value to his performance as a Raptadu mandal president was Daggubati's connection with the young turk Nara Lokesh, TDP national general secretary. Lokesh already has his youth coterie in every district who hail his leadership.

Ex-MLA Gonuguntla Suryanarayana of Dharmavaram, a smart leader and financially strong A class civil contractor was highly hopeful of his nomination as candidate for Dharmavaram either from TDP or BJP.

He was double sure as Naidu promised to nominate him and in case the constituency was given to BJP, then too his nomination was guaranteed by Naidu as well as by BJP state leadership as he is presently in BJP. He joined BJP with the express consent of Naidu to safeguard his business interests.

Until the last minute he was double sure of the MLA ticket by either of the parties but misfortune stuck him and forces powerful than him in the BJP national camp hijacked the party ticket. One Sathya Kumar Yadav who is the BJP national secretary and in-charge of UP party affairs as well as BJP Andaman and Nicobar Islands party affairs is nominated as the party candidate from Dharmavaram. He worked as personal assistant to former Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu. His connection with Venkaiah Naidu fetched him important portfolios in the BJP national unit. But what came as a shock to Gonuguntla was that a person with such high connection would zero-in to a remote constituency in AP State.

The unlucky in YSRCP camp include Kapu Ramachandra Reddy of Rayadurg constituency, a senior party leader who sailed with party chief Jagan Mohan Reddy after Jagan resigned from the Congress Party and launched his own party. He was one of the many MLAs who resigned as MLA in support of Jagan Reddy. He was a YSR loyalist.

Similar is the case of Jonnalagadda Padmavathi, sitting MLA of Singanamala constituency. Her husband Sambasiva Reddy has close connection with Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Both candidates who boast of high connections became a casualty to the adverse intelligent reports and the party president left them high and dry. These unlucky Four lost their political game to forces beyond their control while novices boast of party recognition to their hard work. The unlucky Four mistook sunset for sunrise.