Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N. Chandrababu Naidu is unlikely to have a cake-walk in his Kuppam Assembly constituency in 2014 elections, with the fast changing political scenario in the party’s bastion. In three decades, from 1983 to 2013, the TDP enjoyed monopoly, facing dummy candidates from the Congress each time. Last time the Congress saw victory here was in 1978.
What is worrying the TDP cadres these days is the threatening surge of the YSR Congress in the 2014 elections. To substantiate this, they maintained that Mr. Naidu polled 70% of the votes in 2004 election with the Congress getting 27%. In 2009, Mr. Naidu polled 61% of votes, followed by the Congress with 31%. With 2014 elections approaching, the Congress has clearly turned into a non-entity in Kuppam and is replaced by the YSR Congress.
The decision of YSRC chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy to storm Mr. Naidu’s bastion on the very first leg of his visit to Chittoor district has unnerved the TDP leaders. The decision of Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy to launch his political campaign for 2014 from Kuppam directly negates the traditional practice of launching the same every year from Tirupati, as was done by N.T. Rama Rao, Chiranjeevi and Mr. Naidu himself. Their YSRC counterparts are openly saying that Mr. Jaganmohan Reddy’s Samaikya Sankharavam is nothing but a straight campaign for 2014 race for political power. They observe that gone are the days of Mr. Naidu coming to Kuppam months before elections and winning the polls each time. Mr. Naidu, rendered powerless for two terms, has left development in Kuppam unfinished. There is growing unemployment in the tail-end constituency. During the last one decade, the youth are disillusioned with the dynastic politics.
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Above all, Mr Naidu’s stand of equal justice on State bifurcation has failed to impress people, particularly the unemployed youth and students. The YSRC, with its outright Samaikhyandra plank, has led to the dawn of new political thinking among youngsters. For the first time, the dominant Reddy community is grouping up against the TDP in the constituency, influenced by former minister P. Ramachandra Reddy and the disqualified MLAs (from the TDP), N. Amarnatha Reddy and AV Praveen Kumar Reddy.