Kalyanadurgam voters in a bind over Raghuveera

Kalyanadurgam (Anantapur): People in Kalyanadurgam Assembly constituency, once represented by N Raghuveera Reddy, are on the horns of dilemma whether to elect him or the party of their choice, as the party he is representing commands little respect here. Having said this, a section of people can't completely ignore the contribution of the senior leader to the development of the constituency just because he is contesting on the ticket of the party which split the state without justice.

Raghuveera Reddy was agriculture minister in the Congress government under Y S Rajasekhar Reddy government and earned a good name as the best MLA and best performer who strived for constituency development. He was instrumental in laying the outer ring road and also ensuring road connectivity to all villages apart from widening of roads.

As agriculture minister, he strove for the improvement of the lot of tomato and groundnut farmers. He built houses for the homeless. He saw to it that every farmer benefited from input subsidy and crop compensation to groundnut farmers. Despite being the chief of AP unit of the Congress that was rejected by the voters, the Kalyanadurgam people are seeing him as an individual.

Many of the constituency voters are inclined to vote for Raghuveera Reddy and not necessarily as Congress candidate. The people who once loved Raghuveera are now in the cross roads unable to decide whether or not to vote for him. While a section of the voters are inclined to vote for him irrespective of party affiliations, others are in a fix.

Chandrasekhar, a voter of Kalyanadurgam town, says Raghuveera is worthy of vote but what can he do as an individual as there are remote chances of Congress coming to power in the state. Another voter Sailaja Reddy says that she is voting for Raghuveera as Rahul Gandhi who came to the town recently promised loan waiver up to Rs 2 lakhs if the Congress coalition comes to power at the Centre.

Sundaram Naidu says a sizeable chunk of voters are preferring Raghuveera over YSRCP and TDP candidates. A large number of supporters of Congress and Raghuveera had scattered to TDP and YSRCP during 2014 elections while some of them returned to Raghuveera now, much water had flowed in HNSS canal since then and politics experienced new twists and turns in the constituency.

Raghuveera is slogging it out meeting constituency voters who still have a liking for him. He is promising to take Kalyanadurgam to new development heights. Talking to 'The Hans India', Raghuveera maintained that his development role model is there for people to see.

He said that he was already proven by the people whereas his rival candidates of TDP and YSRCP are freshers and first timers. If elected as an MLA, he would use his influence at the Centre to bring huge funds for Kalyanadurgam as a Congress coalition led by Rahul Gandhi is poised to form the government at the Centre. If he could not get Special Category Status for AP, he would never seek votes from the people, Raghuveera said.

Meanwhile, YSRCP candidate Kuruba Usha Sri and TDP candidate Umamaheshwar Naidu who were claiming to emerge as winners in the electoral arena are now anxious over the outcome of election result with Raghuveera Reddy stealing the political show. They are scared that he would cut into their votes and bring down their winning chances. Not only are the candidates but the voters are also confused due to the presence of PCC chief.