Sunitha deplores lack of development in last 5 years

Raptadu (Anantapur): Former minister Paritala Sunitha and wife of slain TDP leader Paritala Ravindra is virtually riding on a tiger vociferously campaigning against what she calls the sand, liquor and drug mafia YSRCP government.

She is leaving no stone unturned to send the sitting YSRCP MLA Prakash Reddy home and win with a thumping majority. The “Iron lady” is making determined efforts to stage a comeback in 2024 elections. She says Prakash & co is indulging in sand and liquor fiascos and there is no development, be it on the irrigation front, industrial front and on the socio-economic front.

Due to their reign of terror the noted Apparel Jockey brand migrated to Telangana unable to put up with the “mamool wallas” of the MLA & Co.

Talking to The Hans India, Sunitha accused her rival Prakash Reddy of winning the 2019 elections with rigged votes. The 'never say die' woman is as ferocious as her husband Ravindra and is engaged in an unrelenting campaign for over six months moving into the rural heartland of her constituency and exposing the non-performance of the ruling dispensation.

She electrified Raptadu with her intense campaigns mandal- wise, Lokesh Padayatra in her constituency, 'Operation women outreach’ meeting scores of women in every village and even bringing party national president N Chandrababu Naidu to address 'Praja Galam.’

For more than six months she was on the roads promising a better life to people, exposing the non-performance of the ruling party and now she is more than confident in declaring the victory of TDP-JSP-BJP alliance in the hustings.

Sunitha received tremendous response in Gudivandlapalle, Somadivandlapalle, Narasampalle, Baddalampuram, Yelajuntla and Nemalivaram in Kanaganapalle mandal in her constituency.

She said that the ruling party betrayed the people by denying funds to the Perur irrigation project launched by the TDP government during 2014-19. She accused the ruling party of unleashing drug mafia in Visakhapatnam and being in the centre of ganja smuggling. She called upon the youth and party workers to mobilise people in villages against the YSRCP government. Paritala Sunitha was elected as MLA in 2009 and as well as in 2014, while in 2019 she lost to her YSRCP rival Thopudurthi Prakash Reddy. After the assassination of her husband Paritala Ravindra, she changed her husband's constituency of Penukonda from where Ravindra had been contesting since the founding of TDP in 1983 by legendary actor Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao.

The once shy and confined to kitchen lady of Venkatapuram village Paritala Sunitha dared to step into the shoes of her late revolutionary Naxalite-turned-politician husband and rose up to the expectations of party leaders and workers who found a leader in her.

They stood with her in the thick and thin post Ravindra's assassination. In 2009, she contested as TDP MLA candidate from Raptadu and won with a slender margin of 1,707 votes against Congress candidate Thopudurthi Prakash Reddy at the height of Y S Rajasekgara Reddy wave. She polled 64,559 votes and Thopudurthi 62,852 votes.

In 2014 too she won with an improved majority of 7,774 votes. She polled 91,394 votes while Topudurthi secured 83,620 votes. However Sunitha's rising popularity was checked by the YSRCP wave in 2019, which reversed the election fortunes of Sunitha resulting in Thopudurthi who lost twice to Sunitha, winning over her with a thumping majority of 25,575 votes, an all time high majority in the constituency.

If one has to go into caste configurations, the BC's constitute nearly 70 per cent of the population while the remaining votes are shared by SC, ST, Reddy and Kamma voters. The BC castes Kuruba and Boya are the dominant castes who determine any body's victory chances.

The BC population stood with Paritala Sunitha twice in 2009 and 2014. In 2019, YSRCP chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy managed to win the confidence of the BCs through their BC declarations.

Raptadu constituency being agrarian in nature depended mostly on rainfall but Paritala Sunitha changed the dynamics of her constituency by bringing Krishna water to Raptadu during 2014 after she became a minister. She filled the village tanks with Krishna water and boosted prospects of agriculture and irrigation.

She also worked hard to bring the prestigious Apparel Jockey group at the fag end of her term in 2014-19 but with the change in the government, the company shifted to Telangana amidst allegations of YSRCP MLA Prakash Reddy demanding kickbacks, the group decided to move to Telangana where KCR gave them the red carpet welcome.

During the past 5 years, Prakash and Sunitha had been trading charges against each other and accusing each other of being responsible for the exit of the apparel industry.

The present MLA Thopudurthi Prakash Reddy had made promises of establishing IT companies in the constituency, but nothing happened so far. Prakash Reddy was also in the eye of the storm with regard to deletion of thousands of TDP voters from electoral rolls and ECI taking cognizance of it. Reddy also is being accused of corruption and failed promises.

Paritala Sunitha is highly confident of her victory this time in 2024 as there is no Jagan wave as existed in 2019.

She is riding high with her strategic and well calculated campaigns and far ahead of others in people connect programmes in the district.