No-holds-barred campaign for Nandyal bypoll ends

Each party lodged a plethora of complaints against other

The no-holds-barred campaign for Nandyal byelection came to an end on Monday evening. It drew greater nationwide attention than in 1996 when Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao romped home defeating late MLA Bhuma Nagi Reddy, with a whopping margin of around five lakh votes.

The Nandyal constituency is going for the byelection for a second time on August 23 and incidentally both the byelections were necessitated by the death of Bhuma family members. In a bypoll caused by the death of sitting MLA Bhuma Veera Sekhar Reddy in 1992, Bhuma Nagi Reddy made his debut as MLA and his death this year led to the byelection exactly 25 years later. Bhuma Veera Sekhar Reddy’s son Bhuma Brahmananda Reddy is contesting as the TDP candidate.

Interestingly, while Bhuma Nagi Reddy won the 2014 election as the YSR Congress candidate and defected to the Telugu Desam Party last year, his opponent Silpa Mohan Reddy, who contested as the TDP candidate in the last general elections, defected to the YSRCP and is its candidate now.

The TDP and the YSRCP have taken the byelection prestigiously and left no stone unturned to boost their election prospects by claiming that the bypoll verdict is a pointer to the 2019 general elections. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu made two-day visits to Nandyal for electioneering thrice during the last one and half months, while Opposition leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy canvassed for Mr. Silpa Mohan Reddy by staying put in Nandyal for 14 days at a stretch after a day-long tour prior to it.

The TDP and YSRCP presidents went the whole hog against each other in their campaigns, which marked vitriolic remarks, slander, claims and counter claims and digging into each other’s political past generating considerable heat. The ruling party deployed a host of Ministers, MPs, MLAs and several corporation chairmen and the YSRC too pressed into service most of its MLAs and important leaders for campaigning. Both parties lodged a plethora of complaints against each other.

Chanting the development mantra, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, Ministers and the TDP leaders asserted that the ongoing development work would continue if people voted for the TDP, Mr. Jagan centred his campaign accusing Mr. Naidu of failing to fulfil his promises made to various sections of people.

Film actor and MLA N. Balakrishna and comedian Venu Madhav canvassed for the TDP while YSRC MLA and actor R.K. Roja and actor Vijayachander campaigned for the YSRC.

The Congress too campaigned vigorously for its candidate Gaddam Abdul Khader with APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy, vice-president N. Thulasi Reddy, former Union Ministers Kotla Jayasuryaprakash Reddy, J.D. Seelam and K. Krupa Rani and former Ministers criss crossing the constituency since a fortnight.