It was a bag of mixed electoral fortunes for the turncoats in Prakasam and Nellore districts in the just-concluded elections. While an overwhelming majority of the leaders who crossed over to the YSRCP romped home at the hustings, those who chose the TDP faced severe drubbing.
TDP leaders Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy (Ongole LS), Adala Prabhakar Reddy (Nellore LS), Balli Durga Prasad (Tirupati LS), and Anam Ramanarayana Reddy (Venkatagiri Assembly) parted ways with the TDP to join the YSRCP. They won because the YSRCP’s strategy of attracting short-listed TDP candidates on the poll-eve, to leave the ruling party clueless in selecting formidable alternative candidates, paid dividends. The exit of Mr. Prabhakar Reddy was dramatic. The TDP candidate for the Nellore Rural seat had abruptly called off his campaign only to join the YSRCP the following day. He went on to win the Nellore LS seat with a margin of more than 1.54 lakh votes against TDP nominee B. Mastan Rao. Mr. Srinivasulu Reddy, a three-time MP, defeated Minister Sidda Raghava Rao by a margin of 2.14 lakh votes. Former Congress MP Panabaka Lakshmi who joined the TDP on the eve of elections to contest from the Tiupati LS seat, which has four Assembly segments — Venkatagiri, Sullurpeta, Gudur and Sarvepalli in Nellore district — suffered defeat at the hands of Mr. Durga Prasad, a former TDP MLA from Gudur who contested on YSRCP ticket. Mr. Ramanarayana Reddy, a Minister in the Cabinet of Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, joined the YSRCP after flirting with the TDP for some time, and won the Venkatagiri seat by defeating sitting TDP MLA K. Ramakrishna by 38,720 votes. Sitting YSRCP MLAs P. Sunil Kumar (Gudur), Pothula Rama Rao (Kandukur), M. Ashok Reddy (Giddalur), who switched to the TDP during the middle of the term, were defeated by YSRCP nominees V. Varaprasad, M. Mahidhar Reddy and Anna Ram Babu by a margin of 46,185, 14,936 and 81,035 votes respectively.
Amanchi’s defeat
It was not that all who crossed over to the YSRCP from the TDP could win. Chirala MLA Amanchi Krishnamohan missed a hat-trick, losing to TDP nominee Karanam Balarama Krishnamurthy by 17,400 votes. Sitting Addanki MLA G. Ravikumar scored a hat-trick and retained the seat on TDP ticket defeating YSRCP’s B.Ch. Garataiah by a margin of 12,900 votes.
