Atmakur candidates galore for 2019 polls

Nellore: Musical chairs for many MLA seats has begun in Nellore with frequent changes in political scenario in the district, especially in Atmakur. Even as Anam Ramanarayana Reddy had planned to shift loyalties to the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), former MLA Bollineni Krishnaiah, who won from the constituency in 1999 from the Congress, is now planning to contest from the TDP and has been moving closely with the party in-charge Adala Prabhakar Reddy.

Atmakur constituency, in fact, is strong hold for the Congress and father of the present ZP Chairman B Raghavendra Reddy, Dr B Sundararami Reddy, was a three-time Congress legislator. In 1994, Telugu Desam candidate Kommi Lakshmaiah Naidu had won from the constituency. In 1999, Bollineni Krishnaiah had secured victory on the Congress ticket and he subsequently joined the BJP. Kommi Lakshmaiah Naidu won from the Atmakur Assembly segment in 2004 elections as an independent candidate.

In 2009, Anam Ramanarayana Reddy won the seat from the same constituency on the Congress ticket. In 2014, YSRCP candidate Mekapati Goutham Reddy bagged the seat. Now, many leaders are eying on the constituency and freshly Bollineni Krishnaiah joined the team.

In fact, Bollineni Krishnaiah is chairman of KIMS and also popular contractor. For some time, he has not been not active in politics and now he is showing interest on the constituency and moving closely with Adala Prabhakar Reddy, who was entrusted to search for a right candidate to be fielded from the TDP in the upcoming polls.

The present MLA Mekapati Goutham Reddy defeated TDP’s Guturu Murali Kanna Babu during the recent polls in 2014. So, Kanna Babu showing interest on the constituency and he had staged a protest in the TDP office in Nellore recently opposing decision of the party appointing Adala Prabhakar Reddy as in-charge of the constituency. But, the district leadership consoled him and finally there was a consensus.

Now, with the re-entry of Krishnaiah, who was with the BJP for some years, and has been lobbying for the seat from the constituency, there would be an internal war in the TDP again, political analysts say. Finally, Atmakur constituency has become a hot cake for the aspirants. It was said that Krishnaiah met the Chief Minister recently along with Adala Prabhakar Reddy and has been getting ground ready for joining the party.

It may be recalled that the sitting MLA M Goutham Reddy had already announced that he would be contesting from the constituency in 2019 elections too when rumours were doing rounds on possible allocation of the seat to Ramanarayana Reddy soon after he joined the opposition. Still, he has to shift his loyalties officially.