Malladi confident of retaining MLA seat

Malladi confident of retaining MLA seat
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The four-time MLA and one-time Minister from the Congress in the 30-seat Puducherry Legislative Assembly, Malladi Krishna Rao, is confident of retaining his seat in May 16 Assembly elections, while his opponents spell doom for him. Malladi, who was backed by fishermen community, said that what matters most was the majority sounding confident of his imminent victory. 

Yanam: The four-time MLA and one-time Minister from the Congress in the 30-seat Puducherry Legislative Assembly, Malladi Krishna Rao, is confident of retaining his seat in May 16 Assembly elections, while his opponents spell doom for him. Malladi, who was backed by fishermen community, said that what matters most was the majority sounding confident of his imminent victory.

  • Rides on fishermen community backing
  • The undisputed leader who is often portrayed as the man behind the development of Yanam, vows to develop the town into a major tourist attraction

Out of 36,000 electorate, fishermen constitute 13,000, whose support will decide the fate of any candidate. The Yanam seat was allotted to Malladi as part of an electoral alliance between Congress and DMK. Malladi who was elected to the Assembly for the first time in 1996 secured 5,000 majority, unprecedented in the history of the constituency for the past four decades.

Kamisetty Parasuram Naidu, predecessor of Malladi, set a record of sorts getting elected to the Assembly several times. He functioned as speaker of the Assembly as well. In a word, Malladi emerged as an undisputed leader in the constituency. He belonged to fishermen constituency. The other communities in the constituency are Kapus (9,000), SCs (7,000) and BCs (6,000).

Besides Congress, other outfits in the fray will be AIADMK and All India NR Congress (AINRC). In case of a political alliance between the AIADMK and AINRC, only one candidate will be in fray. Manchala Satya Saikumar is likely to be the AIADMK choice for the Yanam. If the AINRC were to contest the polls, there will be competition between Velaga Rajeswara Rao and Tirukoti Bhairava Swamy.

It will take at least a week to finalise the list of candidates. Malladi is banking on developing the constituency, which is rather small, in leaps and bounds by spending at least Rs 1,000 crore. However, his opponent and former MLA Rajeswara Rao alleged that the MLA looted funds in the name of development.

During the past 20 years, politics of conspiracy was encouraged rather than politics of development. Yanam Block Congress president begs to differ. He said that development of the constituency was transparent and people will fondly refer to development of the constituency as prior to Malladi and after Malladi. Republican party nominee Moka Mohana Rao accused Malladi of not allowing leaders from other communities.

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