Weavers to decide fate of candidates

Dharmavaram(Anantapur): The handloom town with a population of 3,04,706 has a Scheduled Caste ratio of 9.68 per cent and ST population of 5.4 per cent.The TDP and the YSRCP fighting the battle to capture the hearts of handloom artistes. The total number of voters is 2,06,266 and the number of polling stations is 285 in the constituency.

The voter turnout in 2014 Assembly elections is 83.96 per cent and 83.96 per ent in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP, Congress, YSRCP and TDP secured 0 per cent, 0.82 per cent, 44.68 per cent and 52.14 per cent votes respectively.

Dharmavaram Assembly constituency with a population of 3.04 lakh is a crucial constituency with two thirds of the population being weavers and 1.4 lakh being handloom weavers. The total voter population is 2.06 lakh voters. 50 per cent of the voters are weavers and that goes without saying that the weaver voters are the deciding factor for the victory of any candidate.

In the 2014 Assembly elections, Gonuguntla Suryanarayana alias Vardapuram Suri was elected MLA of Dharmavaram constituency as the TDP candidate. He then won over his nearest rival and YSRCP candidate Kethireddy Venkatarami Reddy.

Gonuguntla has a good name in the constituency as one who initiated several developmental works including bringing Krishna water to Dharmavaram and transforming the landscape of the region. He also addressed issues pertaining to weavers but the weavers feel that their basic issues need to be addressed including technology up-gradation etc.

In 2014, the TDP MLA polled 99,246 votes while his rival Kethireddy of YSRCP polled 85,035 votes. In 2009 elections, Kethireddy won as Congress MLA over his TDP rival Gonuguntla.When the presidents of TDP, YSRCP and Jana Sena visited Dharmavaram in the recent past, they made three different announcements and promises for Dharmavaram.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu promised to transform Dharmavaram into a smart city while Pawan Kalyan vowed to take Dharmavaram into international limelight by promising to work for patent right to Dharmavaram saree. YSRCP president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy promised among many things pension payment of Rs 3,000 for every eligible weaver right from the age of 45 years.

The TDP has once again nominated Gonuguntla and the YSRCP fielded Kethireddy. Both the candidates have intensified their campaigns and are leaving no stone unturned to achieve victory in the elections. Gonuguntla thinks that his performance as well as the Chief Minister's would see him through while Kethireddy thinks that the people have already taken a decision to give a chance to Jaganmohan Reddy.

He feels that YSRCP's promise to extend pension benefits to male and female weavers who crossed the age of 40 years will help him to romp home, he adds."We are only asking the government to better our lives by addressing all issues of our community. Instead of making our town a smart one, they should make our lives smart. So far, about 25,000 weavers had migrated to other towns," say weavers Maruthi and Mohanarao.

The weavers associations are demanding that the Chief Minister should provide 100 units free power to weavers, creation of a revolving fund and provision of government guarantees to weavers' bank loans, besides setting up a weavers' enforcement office in Dharmavaram, payment of maternity allowance of Rs 2,000 every month to pregnant women weavers for six months and compensation to the families of the weavers who committed suicides and died of heart ailments.

The weavers said that there are 1.4 lakh handlooms in the district and two lakh weavers are engaged in the work. He demanded that the government grant Rs 1,000 crore in the Budget for weavers. There are 254 weavers' cooperative societies with 26,725 members and of them, 170 societies are functioning well, he added.