In Coastal AP, 3 Ministers in troubled waters

The ruling Congress in Andhra Pradesh stated various reasons to bifurcate the State.

However, it may have committed political suicide where the nine districts of Coastal Andhra and four districts of Rayalaseema, accounting for 25 Lok Sabha seats and 175 Assembly seats, are concerned.

The Congress has already lost the election and the fight is only between the YSR Congress Party and the TDP-BJP combine, say political observers, who expect Congress candidates to be worse off than even the Independents.

It is in the backdrop of a strong anti-Congress wave sweeping across the region that Union HRD Minister MM Pallam Raju, Union Tribal Welfare Minister V Kishore Chandra Deo and Union Minister of State for IT K Kruparani are seeking re-election.

Pallam Raju is seeking re-election from the port town of Kakinada from where he won comfortably in 2009. He took a stand against the bifurcation and even resigned in protest, but he was later persuaded to stay on. But the people in his constituency are not convinced of his efforts and he is facing their wrath.

Raju is also hamstrung in his campaign by the fact that most of the sitting Congress MLAs in his constituency have deserted the party and are contesting on other party tickets. He is fighting a lone battle for a lost cause.

Kishore Chandra Deo, seeking re-election from the Araku (Scheduled Tribe) constituency in Visakhapatnam district, appears to be in a much better position than his Cabinet colleague from Kakinada.

However, he too is facing the heat as the anti-Congress sentiment is being felt even in the remote hilly tribal tracts in his constituency.

Deo won the 2009 election with a majority of more than 1 lakh votes, but this time round the YSR Congress is giving him a stiff fight.

It is said that he may scrape through with a vastly reduced majority, as he has a clean image and he took a clear-cut stand on the bifurcation.

He supported the bifurcation and, in fact, wanted trifurcation, with Rayalaseema being made a separate State. Further, he is batting for Visakhapatnam as the new State capital.

He enjoys great support in Araku though he is not a mass leader. He may survive the political storm.

Krupa Rani is also facing an uphill task in Srikakulam LS constituency, where the TDP has fielded K Rama Mohan Naidu, son of the late K Yerram Naidu.

Yerram Naidu was a popular TDP leader and he also served for a while in the United Front Government as the Union Rural Development Minister. He died in a road accident.

There is sympathy for him in the constituency and therefore Krupa Rani is doubly disadvantaged, as she has to fight the anti-Congress sentiment as well as the sympathy factor.

Purandeswari, who represented the Visakhapatnam LS constituency, quit the Congress after the bifurcation and joined the BJP. She is now contesting from Rajampeta on a BJP ticket.

Another Union Minister, K Sambasiva Rao, also quit the Congress to join the BJP.