He has won the hearts of the people of Yanam again and become their legislator for the fifth consecutive term. Fifty one-year-old Malladi Krishna Rao of the Congress has been elected MLA of the Yanam Assembly constituency of Union Territory Puducherry with a majority of 8,754 votes against his close relative and NR Congress candidate Tirukoti Bhairava Swamy. This seems to be the toughest election ever faced by Mr. Krishna Rao in the last two decades of his political career, as he got about 80 per cent of the polled votes in the last four elections.
Though he was enjoying the confidence of the BC and SC voters of the constituency, political observers were of the view that winning the election was not going to be a cakewalk for Mr. Krishna Rao this time owing to the prevailing conditions in Yanam. Continuous closure of industrial units and growing unemployment and the subsequent restlessness among youth posed a challenge to him prior to the elections. At one point of time, he even announced that he was not going to contest the election.
Downtrend
Once known as an industrial hub, Yanam town witnessed the height of industrial unrest in 2012 that was resulted in the closure of its major industry Regency Ceramics and its ancillary units.
Since then, the industrial scenario has remained gloomy owing to the new taxation policy that levied burden on the industrialists. The closure of the units had a cascading affect on the employment and hundreds of workers have lost their jobs in the last four years.
Tourism remained the only source of income for the town that was known for the river beach, boating facilities, buildings of French architecture and luxurious hotels.
However, the tourism industry could not generate jobs and the workers were left with no option but to migrate to other towns and cities in search of employment. This trend prompted the onlookers to see a troubled road for Mr. Krishna Rao to win the battle.
“I owe a lot to the people of Yanam, who retained their confidence in me. Employment generation is my topmost priority and I am keen on bringing new industries such as food processing units here,” Mr. Krishna Rao said in response to the verdict given by the voters. As the Congress coalition was voted to power in Puducherry, people of Yanam are expecting a berth for him in the Cabinet.
