Keen contest on cards

Anantapur: The number of voters in Anantapur Assembly constituency as per 2014 voters list is 1,81,764. It has 253 polling stations and the SC and STs population, out of the total population was 6.83 per cent and 2.87 per cent respectively.

As per January 2019 revised voters list, the district has 30,50,900 voters spread over 14 Assembly segments and 2 Parliamentary constituencies. In the 2014 Assembly elections, the main contest was between the TDP and the YSRCP parties. TDP nominee V Prabhakar Chowdary won in the Assembly constituency by a margin of nearly 10,000 votes.

He fought against the YSRCP candidate B Gurunath Reddy who polled 65,370 votes against Prabhakar who polled 74,704 votes. Prabhakar Chowdary whose renomination was confirmed by party president will be facing Anantha Venkatarami Reddy of YSRCP in the 2019 elections to be held in the first phase on April 11.

Although it will be a multi-cornered contest involving Jana Sena and BJP parties, the fight will be between TDP and YSRCP parties. TDP candidate Chowdary faces a challenge with the Balija community opposing re-nomination of Prabhakar Chowdary. The Balija community is quite strong in the Assembly segment with an estimated 20,000 voters who could influence the victory of any candidate.

Kapu caste is an amalgamation of Telaga, Balija and Ontari who are identified as Kapus in the coastal districts of AP. Prabhakar Chowdary had been strategically working for over 6 months by actively connecting with his constituency voters. He would now intensify his election campaign from Friday after he completes his booth level party workers meeting.

He had given house sites under NTR Housing to thousands of women and pensions and several economic benefits to youth and to people of all castes. YSRCP candidate Anantha Venkatarami Reddy to is not lagging behind as he had been meeting constituency voters for over 6 months. He was 4 times MP from Anantapur Lok Sabha constituency. He is also quite popular in the constituency.