Voters find Candidates persona non-grata in chevella

Rangareddy: While the political parties are busy in their campaigns, the voters in Chevella segment are still in a dilemma over choosing a right candidate in this poll battle as they believe that most of the candidates are non-performing players given their abilities and performance in the past.

The Chevella Lok Sabha segment consists of seven assembly constituencies that include Maheshwaram, Rajendranagar, Serilingampally, Chevella, Pargi, Vikarabad and Tandur. Four out of a total seven constituencies such as Maheshwaram, Rajendranagar, Serilingampally and Chevella comes under Rangareddy district while rest of the three constituencies like Pargi Vikarabad and Tandur are part of newly formed Vikarabad district.

According to official statistics, there are a total number of 29,19,465 voters in all the seven constituencies of the segment that include 14,94,876 male and 14,24,312 female electors besides 277 third genders.

A brazen level of encroachments of government lands, lakes and flood flow canals besides encouragement of town planning violations and swallowing open plots meant for public amenities are some of the common complaints being reported from almost all the seven assembly segments of Chevella LS segment.

This is said to be the primary reason behind the majority of voters perceiving candidates as persona non-grata in the Chevella segment.

Indicating towards a possible change in voting pattern this time, A Anil Kumar, a social activist said, "The BJP candidate Vishweshwar Reddy failed to rein-in the growing influence of the land sharks in several constituencies during his tenure and this has led to brazen level of encroachments over lakes and ponds besides government lands."

"His successor Dr Ranjith Reddy, who recently jumped into Congress from BRS, too turned a complete blind eye towards the persisting catastrophe of unauthorised ventures, layouts and town planning violations in different municipalities of the segment during his four years of term," he added.

The decision of the Congress party to field Dr.Ranjith Reddy appeared to not go well with the people. "Most of the voters still see Ranjith Reddy as the face of the BRS and are completely upset with the way he performed during the last four years as MP. For sure they will not favour Ranjith Reddy this time," said M Manohar, a voter from Chevella.

Syed Shoukat Ali, a community activist said, "Neither Vishweshwar Reddy nor Ranjith Reddy has tried to work sincerely during their tenure to address the issues of voters especially from Rajendranagar constituency where minority votes play a decisive role." Terming all the candidates seeking mandate in Chevella as persona non-grata, he said, "Leave alone paying heed to our issues, both the candidates not even visited our areas during their terms. This shows how sincere they were when they are at the helm of affairs. Unfortunately these candidates are again seeking mandate from the voters whose sufferings were taken for granted."