With less than one week to go for the polls, political heat is on a high with political campaigns by Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy (TDP) and Ch. Anurada (YSRCP), daughter of sitting MLA Budi Mutyala Naidu, in Madugula Assembly constituency. The recent incident of attack on BJP leader and alliance party MP candidate from Anakapalli C.M. Ramesh at Taruva village, the hometown of Deputy Chief Minister and two-time MLA Budi Mutyala Naidu, has further raised the political heat. After the attack, the alliance parties have taken it as a challenge and making a strong bid to win the constituency, defeating the Deputy CM’s daughter in his turf.
The political equations changed in the constituency for the past two months. Initially, the TDP had fielded senior leader Pyla Prasad as its candidate against YSRCP senior leader Budi Mutyala Naidu. The YSRCP high command asked Mr. Mutyala Naidu to contest as MP candidate from the Anakapalli Lok Sabha Constituency, following appointment of Mr. C.M. Ramesh as alliance candidate. It has fielded Ms. Anuradha as Madugula Assembly constituency candidate.
After Mr. Pyla Prasad filed nomination papers, the TDP high command allotted the seat to former Minister Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy. With this, the TDP activists were divided into three groups led by three senior leaders. Mr. Satyanarayana Murthy was stopped by several villagers at some places who saw him as a non-local. With the intervention of senior TDP leaders and the JSP activists, a patch up was worked out among the groups.
Assembly elections were held for 15 times in the constituency. The TDP had won this seat for six times. From 1983 till 2004, it was TDP senior leader Reddy Satyanarayana was the MLA undefeated. Karanam Dharmasri from Congress had won from this constituency during the 2004 elections and then Gavireddi Ramanaidu from TDP had once again achieved victory in this constituency during 2009. However, since 2014, Budi Mutyala Naidu had won as MLA from the YSRCP two times and had also become the Deputy Chief Minister.
Being a two-time MLA and a Deputy CM, Mr. Mutyala Naidu strengthened the party cadre right from the grassroot level. Moreover, his accessibility to people has been an advantage.
Mr. Satyanayanaraya Murthy started campaigning in the constituency just two weeks ago. He is getting strong support from the BJP MP candidate C.M. Ramesh as well as JSP cadre.
With over 1.80 lakh population, most of the people depend on agriculture in the four mandals – Madugula, Cheedikada, Devarapalli, K. Kotapadu – in the constituency. The people in the constituency seek proper supply of irrigation water. They allege that in the last five years, irrigation projects, Pedderu, Raiwada and Konam, were neglected. The locals also demand running of sugar factories in Chodavaram and setting up of cold storages. Being Deputy CM’s constituency, the roads look much better compared to other constituencies in Anakapalli district. Other demands include proper connectivity to Visakhapatnam,medical facilities, setting up of educational institutions.
