Considered the Silicon Valley of the State, the Hi-Tec city and surrounding areas which fall under Serlingampally constituency, earned a rather unusual distinction in the 2014 Assembly elections- that of sending an MLA to the Assembly with one of the highest majorities in the State.
What is more interesting is the fact that Arekapudi Gandhi of the TDP, who won with a thumping majority of 75,904 votes, is a first-timer. A visit to Mr. Gandhi’s residence in Vivekananda Nagar in Kukatpally is sure to reveal his deep connection with the party.
If the plastic chairs are painted yellow, the colour of TDP, then party flags are placed all around the house. Even his cars have registration numbers starting and ending with number ‘9’, similar to those of late actor NTR. “I was just 17-years-old when I participated in the party launch rally of NTR,” said Mr. Gandhi.
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According to him, the victory was also a result of his unique campaign. “Apart from general canvassing, we made four groups to cover every division of the constituency. One of the groups will exclusively engage with negative voters of our party and convince them to support us. The other groups will appeal to people to inform their friends and relatives about the candidate.”
Mr. Gandhi has quite a few issues in mind to attend to immediately. The foremost among them is the Kondapur Botanical garden issue. “The Congress has killed the green cover in this area. Licenses were given illegally to start a project in this reserved forest. Now I will take up this issue.”
“There is still no proper drinking water supply here and the sewerage system is bad. I will try to solve these issues.”
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