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Congress has its task cut out for Bobbili bypoll

Prabhakkar Sharma

Sympathy, clean image strength for Telugu Desam Party candidate

Congress candidate Botsa Jhansi Lakshmi

VIZIANAGARAM: The Congress has its task cut out in the byelection to the Bobbili Lok Sabha seat, which has always been a stronghold of the Opposition even according to PCC president K. Kesava Rao.

In the 2004 elections, veteran Kondapalli Pydithalli Naidu of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) defeated the present Congress candidate Botsa Jhansi Lakshmi by a margin of over 30,000 votes. The TDP victory was significant in that it was recorded amidst a sort of Congress wave which swept the region where four out of seven Assembly segments in the Bobbili parliamentary constituency-- Bobbili, Cheepurupalli, Sativada and Etcherla-- were bagged by the Congress while the TDP could win only two --Gajapathinagaram and Terlam.

The remaining Assembly seat--Vizianagaram-- was won by Independent Kolagatla Veerabhadraswamy who has since aligned with the Congress.

Now things have changed and there is no wave to carry the Congress, and if at all there is one, it is in the form of sympathy towards TDP candidate Kondapalli Appala Naidu, who is staking claim to the seat, fallen vacant due to his father's death.

In the last election, the Congress was swept off its feet in Vizianagaram segment where Mr. Veerabhadraswamy won as the TDP Lok Sabha candidate got a majority of 25,998 votes. Asked whether he had asked the people to vote for the TDP in the last elections, Mr. Veerabhadraswamy, now a Congress leader, gently parried the question.

Success as ZP chief

Having lost the election despite favourable winds, how could she hope to win now?

Replied Ms. Jhansi Lakshmi: "It is a thing of the past. I have proved myself as Zilla Parishad Chairperson and strove for development of the district. I also bank on the good work of the Rajasekhara Reddy Government which has given us as many as seven irrigation projects and other development programmes." Telugu Mahila president Vanga Geetha said Dr. Naidu had a clean image unlike the main rival whose family's had allegedly amassed wealth through contracts, cable TV and other businesses, not to speak of Volkswagen scam, was the talk of the town.

Never lost: TDP

Former Minister and TDP MLA from Gajapathinagaram Padala Aruna says that the late Naidu never lost an election for the TDP. It was only she who lost in the past to the Marketing Minister Botsa Satyanarayana, who is husband of Ms. Jhansi Lakshmi, she recalled.

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