Upbeat over bypoll win, CM Naidu may go aggressively against Jagan in Pulivendula

Amaravati, Aug 17 Buoyed by the Telugu Desam Party's clean sweep in the by-elections to two ZPTC seats in YSR Congress Party president Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy's home constituency, Pulivendula, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu may go aggressively against him in the YSR family's traditional stronghold.

Four years ago, it was Jagan Mohan Reddy who had stormed the TDP president and Chief Minister Naidu's constituency, Kuppam, by winning rural and urban local body polls. Now, the results of the by-elections to two Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) show that CM Naidu has taken the battle to Jagan's home turf.

More than a year after wresting power from YSRCP along with its allies Jana Sena and BJP, TDP made a huge dent in Jagan's fortress by wresting Pulivendula and Ontimitta ZPTCs from YSRCP.

Political analysts say the outcome has sent the alarm bells ringing in the YSRCP camp a year ahead of the local body polls.

Pulivendula in YSR Kadapa district were seen as an impregnable fortress of the YSR family for nearly five decades.

The family never lost an election in Pulivendula since 1978 when Jagan's father and former Chief Minister Y. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR) scored his first victory from here.

Though the TDP-led alliance stormed to power last year with a whopping 164 seats in the 175-member Assembly, Pulivendula was among 11 seats the YSRCP could manage to retain.

The significance of the ZPTC by-elections can be gauged from the fact that there was a contest for Pulivendula ZPTC for the first time in 30 years. Even before the polling, the TDP tried to project this as what it called "restoration of democracy".

Though these were by-elections for local bodies, they created an environment of Assembly polls with some ministers and senior leaders from TDP hitting the campaign trail. Jagan also deployed key leaders, including Kadapa MP and his cousin Y. S. Avinash Reddy, to retain his political domination in the home district.

The high-voltage campaign triggered tension and clashes between the two groups. Even before the polling, Jagan accused CM Naidu of conspiring to hijack the polls with manipulations by misusing the police and the State Election Commission.

The TDP fielded Latha Reddy, wife of former MLC and TDP's Pulivendula constituency in-charge, Mareddy Ravindranath Reddy, who is popularly known as BTech Ravi.

In Pulivendula, TDP candidate Latha Reddy defeated Hemanth Reddy of YSRCP by a margin of 6,035 votes. She polled 6,716 votes while the YSRCP candidate forfeited the deposit by securing only 683 votes

The TDP also won the Ontimitta ZPTC seat by a margin of 6,267 votes. TDP's Muddu Krishna Reddy polled 12,780 votes while YSRCP’s Iragamreddy Subbareddy secured 6,513 votes.

The YSRCP's allegations of large-scale irregularities and misuse of the police and election machinery in the recent by-elections are the same allegations levelled by the TDP in 2021 after the latter suffered a humiliating defeat in urban and local body polls in Chandrababu Naidu's home turf, Kuppam.

In November 2021, the TDP chief faced huge embarrassment when he suffered a humiliating defeat in the election to the Kuppam Municipality, the only urban civic body in Kuppam. The YSRCP bagged 19 out of 25 wards in the municipality.

The defeat in Kuppam Municipality came a few months after TDP also lost the gram panchayats, MPTC and ZPTC elections in Naidu’s constituency.

This was the first time the TDP suffered defeat in Kuppam, considered a bastion of Chandrababu Naidu, who has been representing the constituency in the Assembly since 1989.

Though YSR and TDP chief Naidu were bitter political rivals and the former often taunted the latter for running away from Chandragiri constituency after the defeat in 1983, the Congress leader never tried anything like what Jagan did in 2021.

Upbeat over the victory in local body polls, Jagan had even formulated plans to wrest the Kuppam Assembly seat in last year's elections. He gave the slogan 'why not 175' to inspire the YSRCP cadres to win all 175 Assembly seats.

Jagan, who had campaigned in Kuppam, also promised that if YSRCP candidate KRJ Bharath wins the seat, he would be made a minister.

Jagan miserably failed as the tally of YSRCP in the Assembly slumped to just 11 from 151 it had won in the 2019 elections.

After returning as the Chief Minister, Chandra Babu Naidu started focusing on Pulivendula to hit back at Jagan. The victory in ZPTC by-polls is seen as just the beginning of this counter-offensive.

"After successfully denting Jagan's bastion, the TDP will look to consolidate itself with the target to capture Zilla Parishad. This may pose a challenge to huge to the YSRCP chief's political supremacy in Pulivendula," says political analyst P. Pavan.

The TDP may also try to corner Jagan over the issue of assigned lands at Idupulapaya, where the YSR family has its estate.

The TDP alleged in the past that the YSR family has been enjoying 700 acres of assigned lands (lands allotted to landless poor) for decades. TDP leaders say YSR, as the then Chief Minister of the combined State, had diluted the Assigned Lands (POT) Act through an ordinance in 2007 only to benefit his near and dear ones.

TDP leader K. Atchannaidu alleged in 2021 that when the issue came to light, YSR returned only 300 acres. He had also claimed that Jagan constructed a house on the assigned lands.

The TDP is also likely to cash in on the "split" in the YSR family to break Jagan's stranglehold on Pulivendula and Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency. Jagan's sister and state Congress president Y. S. Sharmila had challenged his political supremacy by contesting from Kadapa against their cousin Y. S. Avinash Reddy, who had held the seat in 2014. Like Pulivendula, the YSR family has been holding the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat since 1989.

In a huge embarrassment to Jagan, Sharmila not only called up on people to defeat him but also targeted him for what he called shielding Avinash Reddy, an accused in the murder of their uncle Y. S. Vivekananda Reddy.

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