The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Dissidents add to candidates' worries

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 12, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Dissidents add to candidates' worries

By R. Jagadeeswara Rao

RAJAHMUNDRY, APRIL 11. Dissidents continue to cause headaches to all the major political parties in East Godavari district which has the largest number of Assembly seats (21) in the State.

There have been some "success stories" for the Congress though. In Peddapuram, Pantham Mohan Gandhi, belonging to a powerful caste group, withdrew his nomination on Saturday. Badireddy Appanna Dora, who, as an independent candidate in 1999 had polled more votes than the Congress candidate, also pulled out of the fray, enabling the Congress candidate, Chitturi Ravindra, who faced trouble even in filing his nomination, to heave a sigh of relief.

Senior Congress leader and former MP, Kusuma Krishna Murthy (Amalapuram), Guttula Suryanarayana Babu (Ramachandrapuram) and T. K. Visweswara Reddy ( Kadiam) were some other important leaders who withdrew on Saturday. However, there are other rebels who can make a dent in the vote bank of the Congress. Prominent among them is former MLA, Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose in Ramachandrapuram.

He has a strong influence over the caste group he belongs to. So much so that elders of this caste wanted the official Congress candidate, P. Arjuna Rao, who also hails from the same caste, to withdraw in favour of Mr. Bose because the latter had better chances of winning. Mr. Arjuna Rao refused to heed this demand.

In Amalapuram, the Congress candidate, Thadi Tata Rao, an excise contractor, faces the twin problem of a `non-local' tag, besides a rebel candidate in the form of Kudupudi Chittabbai.

In all, Congress faces rebels in five Assembly segments. The TDP and its ally BJP should counter this problem in four Assembly constituencies, and three of them -- Kadiam, Nagaram and Pithapuram, belong to the BJP.

In Kadiam, a senior TDP leader and former MLA, Vadde Veerabhadra Rao, is the TDP rebel candidate.

The party president, N. Chandrababu Naidu, tried to dissuade him from contesting, but Mr. Rao didn't relent.

The former TDP MLAs -- Pulaparthi Narayana Murthy and Korpu Achimamaba -- are the dissidents in the Assembly segments of Nagaram (allotted to the BJP) and Burugupudi for which the TDP is fielding a new face, Pendurthi Annapoorna.

The BJP candidate for Pithapuram, Pendem Dorababu, faces the TDP rebel, Madepalli Babu.

It may be mentioned here that Pithapuram was the only Assembly segment from where an independent - Sangisetti Veerabhadra Rao - won in 1990. Nalla Surya Chandra Rao is another independent who can affect the outcome in the Amalapuram Assembly segment.

Former Minister, Metla Satyanarayana and Thadi Tata Rao are the TDP and the Congress candidates here respectively.

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