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The by-election to the Nandyal Assembly segment on August 23 promises to be a clash of the clans, and a contest typical of the notorious factionalism that that characterises the politics of Andhra Pradesh’s Rayalaseema region.
The Bhuma and Shilpa families, representing the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Opposition YSR Congress, will be pitted against each other in the election.
While Shilpa Mohan Reddy — a former Minister in Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s Ministry who quit the TDP in June — is the YSRC candidate, the ruling party has fielded Bhuma Brahmananda Reddy, the nephew of the late Bhuma Nagi Reddy, whose demise necessitated the election.
With Mohan Reddy’s brother Shilpa Chakrapani Reddy, an MLC, also defecting to the YSR Congress, tempers run high in the region.
The stakes are high for Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, who is keen to establish his TDP’s supremacy in Kurnool, a Rayalaseema district, where the YSRC is equally strong.
Ironically, the Bhuma family — Nagi Reddy and his daughter Akhila Priya — had won the 2014 elections on YSRC tickets, before crossing over to the TDP. Similarly, the Shilpa family left the TDP for the YSRC in June.
The Bhumas’ entry into the TDP in 2016 had invited stiff opposition from the Shilpa family. Chief Minister Naidu, who is also the TDP chief, made young Akhila Priya a Cabinet Minister soon after Nagi Reddy died of a cardiac arrest earlier this year.
It was the TDP’s decision to award the ticket to Brahmananda Reddy that triggered Mohan Reddy’s exit from the party.
Seizing the opportunity, YSRC chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy gave Mohan Reddy the party ticket from Nandyal. The YSRC has been working overtime to win the elections as it could be an indication of things to come in 2019, when Assembly polls and the general elections will be held.
In the past decade, Rayalaseema has been a Congress bastion under the rule of former chief ministers YS Rajasekhara Reddy and Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy. In 2014, the results showed the TDP and the YSRC evenly matched.
In the past three years, despite Jagan losing over 20 of its 67 legislators to the TDP, the Opposition has gained ground in the State, with the Chief Minister and TDP weighed down by unfulfilled promises made in the run-up to the 2014 elections, held in the immediate aftermath of the State’s bifurcation.
A close fight is on the cards. In 2014, Nagi Reddy won the Nandyal seat with a margin of about 4,000 votes. He had then only lost his wife Shobha, the candidate in neighbouring Allagadda to a road accident. But will the strength of and sympathy for the Bhuma family see the TDP through?
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