It's always bad luck for Uravakonda candidates

Uravakonda (Anantapur): The election for Uravakonda Assembly constituency has turned interesting with Congress fielding Y Madhusudan Reddy, brother of Y Visweswar Reddy, ex MLA of Uravakonda and candidate for Uravakonda on behalf of YSRCP. Both the brothers are pitted against Payyavula Keshav, a senior TDP leader and sitting MLA of Uravakonda.

Y Visweswar Reddy is contesting for the third time in the constituency. He contested in 2004 on behalf of CPI (ML), 2009 for Congress party, in 2014 he contested and won from the constituency on behalf of YSRCP and in 2019 he unsuccessfully contested on behalf of same party. In 2024, he is once again trying his luck but misfortune struck him once again with Y Madhusudan Reddy, his own brother, is contesting against him for the Congress party.

Just at a time when his prospects of victory appeared to have increased, his brother's misadventure is now taking a toll in the form of division of votes between the brothers which will ensure a cakewalk for their TDP rival Payyavula Keshav.

Keshav, however, is faced with a bad luck of losing when his party is in power and winning when his opponent parties, be it YSRCP or the erstwhile Congress party, was in power.

Visweswar Reddy shares the same misfortune of losing when his party, the YSRCP stormed to power in 2019. Currently for Visweswar Reddy, the dark shadow of his own brother is haunting him, making him insecure once again.

If one goes down the memory lane, in 1994, the young Payyavula Keshav contested as TDP candidate and won. In 1999, Y Sivaram Reddy of the Congress party won over Payyavula Keshav. Keshav trounced his CPI(ML) rival Y Visweshara Reddy in 2004 and became MLA once again.

Keshav became MLA for the third time in 2009 defeating Visweshwara Reddy who contested as the Congress candidate.

In 2014, Y Visweshwara Reddy contested as the YSRCP candidate and defeated his rival Keshav of the TDP. In 2019, it was Keshav’s turn to trounce Visweshwara Reddy.

In 2014, Reddy won over Keshav by 2,000 odd votes while in 2019, Keshav too won by a slender margin of 2,000 votes.

The two political rivals are viewed by people of the constituency as unlucky guys. In 2004 and 2009, Keshav won when his party lost while he lost when his party won in 2014. Similarly, Visweshwara Reddy lost when his party won in 2019.

This time again in 2024, Payyavula Keshav and Visweshwara Reddy are contesting against each other.

The two parties are nominating the same candidates. Keshav is confident of his party staging a comeback in 2024.

Keshav had been demanding supply of Krishna water to fill all the village tanks in his constituency for irrigation purposes. He is accusing the YSRCP government of doing nothing on the irrigation front.

The main demand of the local people is diversion of Krishna water to irrigate the last acre.

Visweshwara Reddy of YCP also is confident of the return of his party to power and also returning as MLA in 2024. The welfare schemes of his government would Guarantee' the party's return to power. He maintained that what happened in 2009 when all parties ganged up against YSR will happen again when all parties are ganging up against Jagan Reddy in 2024. History would repeat against all odds, he asserted.