Yadavas, Reddys to decide MLA for Kanigiri

Ongole: The politics in the Kanigiri Assembly constituency revolves around the Reddy, Yadava and Kapu communities. The voters, who are victims of fluorosis and migration, demand their public representatives to find a permanent solution, but still, they receive no way out of their problems.

Kanigiri Assembly constituency was a stronghold for the Communist Party of India when it was formed in 1952. Later, the Congress and TDP candidates became MLAs. In 2019, Burra Madhusudan Yadav contested on the YSRCP ticket and won with 11,2730 votes, while his closest opponent Dr Mukku Ugra Narasimha Reddy received 71827 votes, with a majority of 40,903 votes of the total 1,90,676 votes polled in the election.

Kanigiri constituency has an almost equal number of voters from Reddy and Yadava communities, of about 50,000 each. The voters from Kapu and Muslim segments are also influential and have a vote share of about 30,000 each. In the 15 times elections were conducted for Kanigiri Assembly constituency, Reddys were MLAs for 10 times, Kapus for four times and Yadava for one time.

In 2019, Burra Madhusudan Yadav from YSRCP was elected as MLA, but he is facing a negative wave. He is facing charges of land-grabbing, occupying government lands, corruption and neglecting the Reddy community by giving priority to Yadavas. The YSRCP is said to be changing the candidate for the 2024 elections, based on the feedback from the ground level.

With the blessings of YSRCP senior leaders, Reddy corporation chairman Chintalacheruvu Satyanarayana Reddy is participating in the local programmes actively.

Meanwhile, former MLA Kadiri Baburao joined the ruling party from TDP after the 2019 elections and wants to contest as MLA again and is meeting the YSRCP senior leaders.

The local poll pundits say that if YSRCP wants to satisfy the Reddy community, it may give the ticket to Satyanarayana Reddy, or if it wants to go with Kapus, Baburao will be the choice.

If the YSRCP wants to give the ticket to Yadavas again and seek BC votes, it will offer the Kanigiri ticket to Dr Poluboyina Anil Kumar Yadav, as he is facing a tough time in Nellore city.

On the other hand, TDP is pinning its hopes on Dr Mukku Ugra Narasimha Reddy who was elected as MLA in 2009 on the Congress ticket. He joined TDP after the 2014 elections, and contested as a candidate in 2019, but was defeated.

The TDP expects that Ugra Narasimha Reddy will garner the Reddy and Kapu votes, along with the BC votes, as they are already in alliance with the Jana Sena Party. Having a good name as a doctor and a public representatives who will be always available to people, Dr Narasimha Reddy is also confident that he will win in 2024.

Kanigiri Assembly constituency comprses Hanumanthunipadu, Chandrasekharpuram, Pamur, Veligandla, Pedacherlopalle and Kanigiri mandals. It is one of the backward constituencies in the state and is part of the drought-hit western Prakasam district region.

As there is not much water for irrigation, the arid fields in the constituency do not provide enough income even for the survival of an old couple. Most of the youth and middle-aged people in this constituency go to Hyderabad and Bengaluru to work as construction workers, while the old-aged people work as watchmen in apartments.

With the presence of fluoride content in the drinking water, almost every family in many villages has victims of fluorosis, and losing them to Chronic Kidney Disease. Though the government established a kidney dialysis centre in Kanigiri, the people are demanding the government to prove that it is caring for them and would safeguard the future of the next generations. So, the people in the constituency pin their hopes on the completion of the Pula Subbaiah Veligonda project.

The work on the project is going at snail's pace and the governments have been postponing the deadline for completion every six months for more than a decade.

It takes about 15 days to get 10 tmc ft of water from Srisailam project on gravity through both tunnels for the dead storage of Veligonda project. The water can be released from it only after the project receives more floodwater.

Unless a committed MLA and cooperating government comes to the rescue of the Kanigiri people, it is not possible to pump the water through the Veligonda project to the Kanigiri constituency and supply it to every household by pipelines. But it is a mute question whether the politicians, who are busy assessing support from communities, care for the people who elect them.