Nellore city, where Congress unveiled ‘Hand’ symbol

Nellore : Nellore city constituency has a unique distinction in the state’s political history. It has been almost under the complete control of Anam family since 1952. Members of this family were elected five times from Nellore constituency. Not just that, it has a special significance for the Congress as former prime minister Indira Gandhi had unveiled the new symbol of Indian National Congress (Hand) in place of cow and calf on January 6, 1980 here.

Anam family originally belongs to Kadiam village in Rajahmundry mandal of East Godavari district. They had migrated to Nellore long back as their forefather Anam Subbirami Reddy was posted as police officer in Nellore and since then became part of the constituency.

That family was politically elevated after Anam Chenchu Subba Reddy got elected as chairman of 120-year-old Nellore municipality and from then on there was no looking back. In 1955, Subba Reddy got elected as MLA from Nellore city constituency. The only exception in this family who did not enter politics was Anam Bulla Reddy who was a lecturer in Vekatatagiri Raja’s College popularly known as VRC college.

Others like Anam Sanjeeva Reddy, Venkata Reddy, Bakthavatsala Reddy, Vivekananda Reddy, Ramanarayana Reddy, Jayakumar Reddy, Vijayakumar Reddy have been in active politics and gained full grip by getting elected in almost all Assembly constituencies except SC constituencies like Gudur and Sulurpet in the district.

In 1972, Anam Venkat Reddy, in 1983 Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, in 1999 and 2004 Anam Vivekananda Reddy represented this constituency.

The Anam family held many positions like ministers, MLAs, ZP chairpersons, chairmen of Nellore District Cooperative Central Bank (NDCCB) and District Congress Committee (DCC), Pradesh Congress Committee. Present Nellore ZP chairman Anam Arunamma is a scion of Anam family.

Anam Venkata Reddy was the minister for minor irrigation in P V Narasimha Rao government in 1972. Anam Ramanarayana Reddy was R&B minister in NTR Cabinet in 1985 after getting elected to Assembly from Rapuru constituency.

Later, he worked as minister for Information and public relations (I&PR), agriculture during the rule of Dr YS Rajasekhar Reddy and as finance minister in N Kiran Kiran Kumar Reddy and Rosaiah’s Cabinet before the bifurcation of the state.

In 1952, one Khandavalli Krishna Rao and Annadatha Madhava Rao (both were from Brahmin community) contested on Jana Sangh ticket in 1967 elections and both got elected from Nellore constituency with the support of Anam family.

During1985 byelections when NTR lost power due to the coup by Nadendla Bhaskar Rao, TDP lost Nellore city seat to Kunam Venkata Subba Reddy of Congress with a margin of less than 3,000 votes.

It also failed to win back in the next elections in 1989 when Jakka Kodanda Rami Reddy, a Congress rebel won as independent. TDP lost due to lack of support from Anam family. But in 1994, the Congress candidate P V Prasanna Reddy lost the elections as Anam family did not support him.

In 2009 election congress nominee Poluboyina Anilkumar Yadav lost the contest to Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) candidate Mungamuru Sridhar Reddy again because he was not backed by Anam family.

Anil got elected from this constituency in 2014 and again in 2019 as YSRCP candidate. But as the winds are not so favourable now, the going for the ruling party appears to be tough.