Bitter exchanges between the TDP and the YSR Congress marked the run-up to Wednesday’s Nandyal Assembly bypoll, with both Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Leader of Opposition YS Jaganmohan Reddy leading the charge for their respective parties.

Away from the high-decibel campaign, the Congress has been reduced to a mere spectator.

The ruling TDP’s 33-year-old Bhuma Brahmananda Reddy is pitted against the YSRC’s 54-year-old Silpa Mohan Reddy/ Also in the fray is the Congress’ Abdul Khader, an advocate and trade union leader.

While the contest began as a fight between the Bhuma and Silpa families, it has morphed into a Chandrababu-versus-Jagan encounter, and as a semi-final before the 2019 elections.

It was Jagan who raised the pitch during the campaign with frontal charges against the CM, claiming the bypoll would be a verdict against Chandrababu’s ‘misrule’ and a ‘litmus test’ before the 2019 elections. To counter this, the TDP had to summon all its resources, rushing its Cabinet ministers and its leaders in the Rayalaseema region to Nandyal.

Chandrababu, who is the TDP chief, topped off the campaign by camping in the constituency last weekend.

With the stakes high, elections spends reaching astronomical levels and the atmosphere tense, the Election Commission deployed additional Central forces, including the BSF and the State Police for smooth conduct of the polls on August 23.

Counting for the polls will be held on August 28.

The present by-election has been necessitated following the death of sitting MLA, Bhuma Nagi Reddy in March. Nagi Reddy and his daughter Akhila Priya, both of whom won on YSRC tickets in 2014, had defected to the TDP in 2015.

Akhila Priya, who is the MLA from neighbouring Allagadda, is now a minister in Chandrababu’s Cabinet.

With the party deciding to nominate Brahmananda Reddy, who also hails from the Bhuma family, Mohan Reddy, who is from the rival Silpa family, quit the TDP and joined the YSRC, only to be rewarded with the ticket. Mohan Reddy is a two-time MLA from Nandyal (2004, 2009), winning as a Congress candidate.

For Jagan, whose party derives its strength from the Rayalaseema districts — Kurnool, Anantapur, Chittoor and Kadapa, the results will be decisive ahead of 2019.

He, therefore, pitched his tent in the constituency for 10 straight days, relentlessly criticising the CM and his failure to fulfil tall promises, as he described in innumerable public meetings.

As the election is expected to see a thrilling finish, the votes of the minorities, the Congress, and the undecided, can be vital.

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