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Congress candidate has the upper hand

By Our Correspondent

MAHABUBNAGAR, APRIL 18. Though the Congress and TDP candidates for the Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha constituency are not new to politics, both are testing their luck for the first time.

The Telugu Desam candidate and senior politician, Y. Yella Reddy, was elected twice to the Assembly from Maktal and was member of the Chandrababu Naidu Cabinet from 1997 to 1999. This time the Telugu Desam has fielded him for the Mahabubnagar Lok Sabha seat as the BJP has surrendered the seat to it.

The Congress candidate and APCC treasurer, D. Vittal Rao, though a party functionary for several years, has entered the election fray for the first time. Mr. Vittal Rao, a native of the district, has settled down in Hyderabad where he has established several educational institutions besides business firms.

The Congress has captured the seat nine times out of 13 elections held so far to the Lok Sabha. The TDP fielded its candidate on its own only twice in the past but lost to the Congress.

In terms of electioneering, Mr. Vittal Rao was far ahead of Mr. Yella Reddy. Mr. Vittal Rao, whose candidature was cleared by the party in the first list itself, did lot of spadework and was successful in getting D.K. Samarasimha Reddy a senior leader of the party who also filed his nomination as Samajwadi Party candidate, to withdraw.

He has also managed to bring to his fold the rival groups in the party. Mr. Vittal Rao held discussions with rebel candidates contesting in three Assembly segments - Gadwal, Mahabubnagar and Alampur, D.K. Aruna, Puli Veeranna and Challa Venkatrama Reddy respectively which will fetch him a large number of votes apart from official candidates of the TRS.

The Congress candidate also got a boost from the election meeting addressed by AICC president, Sonia Gandhi, at Mahabubnagar. Mr. Vittal Rao is hopeful of getting a large chunk of minority votes which is estimated to about 1.25 lakh in the constituency.

The Padmashali Sangam has openly appealed their members to caste their vote in favour of Mr. Vittal Rao who belongs to their community.

On the other hand, Mr. Yella Reddy claims support of women voters as many of them are members of DWCRA groups. There are about 1,500 thrift groups in the constituency.

The TDP president and Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, addressed 5 election meetings in the constituency including the two election meetings that were held at Marikal and Wanaparthy on Sunday the last day of the campaign for the first phase polls.

The Mahabubnagar Loksabha segment spread over seven Assembly constituencies - Alampur, Gadwal, Amarchinta, Wanaparthy, Kodangal, Maktal, and Mahabubnagar.

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