Rivals turn friends, campaign hand-in-hand

Vijayawada: It is said there are no permanent friends or foes in politics. It proved once again in Penamaluru constituency in NTR district. Political rivals turned into friends and are jointly canvassing for the victory of the TDP in Penamaluru constituency. TDP nomine for Penamaluru Bode Prasad and Nuzvid Assembly constituency TDP candidate Kolusu Parthasarathy are canvassing in Penamaluru constituency. Parthasarathy was in YSRCP and is the sitting MLA of the Penamaluru constituency. The YSRCP had denied the ticket to him and brought housing minister Jogi Ramesh as its candidate in his place.

Parthasarathy quit the YSRCP and joined TDP which fielded him in Nuzvid Assembly seat. Since then, Parthasarathy has been campaigning for TDP in both Nuzvid and Penamaluru. He has long been association with Penamaluru constituency, which was earlier Vuyyur constituency. Vuyyur constituency was abolished and Penamaluru was formed before 2009 elections and polls were held three times since then in 2009, 2014 and 2019. Parthasarathy won two times, once as Congress candidate and once as YSRCP nominee. Bode Prasad was elected in 2014 on behalf of TDP.

Both Prasad and Parthasarathy were political rivals for many years in Penamaluru. Now both are working hard in the constituency for the victory of TDP and jointly participating in the campaign.

On the other hand, housing minister Jogi Ramesh has been canvassing for two months in the constituency. He earlier won two times from Pedana in 2009 and 2019. Though he has no contact with the voters of Penamaluru constituency, Ramesh with the help of local YSRCP cadre has been trying to meet voters and sweating it out to garner support.

Ramesh is the non-local leader and it takes some weeks to get himself familiarise with the constituency, villages, urban colonies and mindset of voters. He may face the problem of non-local sentiment.

Penamaluru is one of the biggest constituencies in Krishna district with more than 2.7 lakh voters. The constituency has three mandals of Penamaluru, Kankipadu and Vuyyur. It has sizeable number of Kamma, Kapu, BC, Muslim, Gowda, Yadva and Dalit voters.

Ramesh belongs to Gowda community and Bode Prasad belongs to Kamma caste.

Kapu voters are in large numbers in Kankipadu and Penamaluru mandal is dominated by Kamma voters. Vuyyur mandal has big number of Yadava, Gowda, Muslim and Dalit voters.

Basing on the caste equations and winning prospects the leaders are carefully planning to meet the voters.

YSRCP announced the candidature of Ramesh long ago so that Ramesh could get ample time for the canvassing and getting support from the voters.

On the other hand, the TDP recently announced the name of Prasad. He is the local leader and has personal contacts with many local leaders, functionaries and voters. TDP-Jana Sena-BJP are contesting as alliance parties and YSRCP is contesting alone. Basing on the caste equations, the two leaders may plan the poll strategy and will work out to win the elections.