The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : High voltage campaign in Siddipet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 04, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

High voltage campaign in Siddipet

By Our Staff Reporter

SIDDIPET, OCT. 3. The election campaign in the crucial Siddipet Assembly segment has reached its crescendo with the archrivals the Telugu Desam and the Congress-backed Telangana Rashtra Samithi embarking on a dawn-to-dusk marathon canvassing in all major mandals of the constituency. With barely ten days left for the by-election, leaders of both parties are engaged in the campaign.

Main contest

While there are nine candidates in the fray, the main contest is between the Telugu Desam candidate and former Minister, Cheruku Mutyam Reddy, and the nephew of Mr. Rao and Minister for Youth Services, T. Harish Rao.

The rebel Congress leader, Mettupally Srininvas, under the banner of Janata Party, Edla Sudarsan Rao Mudiraj of BSP and four independents are in the race.

Even though the Telugu Desam had a head start in the campaign, the TRS is catching up. The TRS is bringing senior Congress leaders and TRS Ministers in the State Cabinet to Siddipet for campaigning. On the other hand TDP leaders like N. Janardhana Reddy, Kadiam Srihari and Babu Mohan are camping at Siddipet in support of Mr. Mutyam Reddy.

Siddipet, being the erstwhile constituency of its president, the campaign has been smooth and encouraging for the TRS candidate right from the beginning.

Telangana sentiment

The Telugu Desam, which has lost Z. Srinivas and Mareddy Srinivas, two of its senior local leaders to the TRS, withstood the initial shock and did a comeback in the contest.

With the separate Telangana sentiment intact in the minds of the Siddipet electorate, the TRS is confident of retaining the seat, while the TDP is banking on the undercurrent of resentment among voters over the inability of the TRS in realising separate statehood for Telangana.

The campaign for Siddipet will further heat up with Mr. Rao himself joining the campaign from October 4, the PCC president and Minister, D. Srinivas, on October 7 and the TDP president, N. Chandrababu Naidu, during the same period.

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