AP political leaders suffer a different stroke this summer

Vijayawada: It looks like the Andhra Pradesh leaders are facing ‘son’ stroke more than the other leaders. The sons are causing embarrassing moments for their fathers with their aggressive attitude in the public. While a few others are influencing their fathers to switch political parties and intend to enter ballot battle in 2019.

The latest one, being Telangana police booking a case against the Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Y S Chowdary’s son, Sai Karteek for taking part in a car race, showcases the tough time political leaders in the State are going through due their son’s behavior. The Union Minister’s son, along with four others, was booked for holding motor car race near KBR Park in Hyderabad.

It was in the first week of March this year that Hyderabad police had booked a case against Ravela Susheel, son of Minister for Social Welfare Ravela Kishore Babu. He was booked for allegedly misbehaving with a woman on the road. The police filed cases under Sections 354, 354(D) and 509 of IPC and Nirbhaya Act.

Even though, police claimed CCTV footage to establish case against the Minister’s son, the Minister and his son have denied it. The Minister himself had handed over his son to the police claiming that his son would come out clean soon.

Earlier, in October 2014, the Guntur police have booked cases against Siddharth, son of Vijayawada legislator, Bonda Umamaheswara Rao, for participating in car race near Yadlapadu in the district in which an engineering student was killed. A case under Sections 304(A) and 337 of IPC were registered against Siddhartha and seven others.

In exactly seven months after this case, Bonda Umamaheswara Rao’s second son, Ravi Teja, was accused in holding a rally in Vijayawada city along with his friends. Marking Ravi Teja’s birthday on May 10, 2015, his friends had organised a motor rally which passed through the busy M G Road too violating the M V Act and traffic rules.

Interestingly, the sons are influencing their fathers in Andhra Pradesh politics. They are deciding where their fathers should stay and play the political game as these young ones are set to enter politics in the 2019 elections.

It was reportedly Jyothula Nehru’s son who had forced his father to quit the YSR Congress and join the ruling Telugu Desam party. Similarly, the Nuzvid legislator Meka Pratap Apparao is said to be under pressure from his son to shift loyalties to the ruling party. The legislator, who hails from the zamindari family of the erstwhile Zamin, is under constant pressure from his rising son. His son, Venugopala Apparao, is understood to have made up his mind and had even convinced his father to give way for his political debut in the 2019 elections.

Similarly, it was the two sons who have made their fathers cast their dice in the 2014 elections. Mandali Raja, the aspiring son of Mandali Buddha Prasad, is said to have played key role in Buddha Prasad shifting to the Telugu Desam Party in the eleventh hour and winning the seat.

It is said that Raja is preparing ground to enter the political battle in the next elections from Challapalli, which is likely to be created by then, if the AP Reorganisation Act 2014 is implemented and Assemblies are re-organised. At Narasaraopet, it was Kasu Mahesh Reddy who had played key role in pulling his father Kasu Venkata Krishna Reddy out of election battle on the Congress ticket.

Mahesh Reddy is almost deciding what his father should do in 2019 elections. It is said that Mahesh Reddy is keen on entering politics from the next elections. However, he has to face Kodela Sivaram Krishna, the elder son of Speaker Dr Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, in the 2019 politics. Though Dr Kodela is unwilling to retire in the next elections, Sivaram is said to be firm on making his debut in the ballet battle.