The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Congress supporters stay away in Therlam

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Friday, May 30, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Congress supporters stay away in Therlam

V. Chalapathi Rao

Polling percentage pushed down to just over 50 in the byelections

VIZIANAGARAM: A majority of traditional Congress supporters stayed away with no word from the party on extending support to the Telugu Desam, pushing down polling percentage to just over 50 in the byelection to Therlam Assembly constituency on Thursday. The polling was peaceful.

Congress sympathisers were obviously either in confusion over the party’s decision to leave the seat to TDP candidate Tentu Lakshmi Naidu whose father’s death necessitated the byelection or stayed away responding to a call reportedly given by Housing Minister Botsa Satyanarayana.

Boycott by villagers

Some simply wanted to protest the Congress-TDP ‘understanding’. With the elections virtually reduced to a ‘no contest’, there was no flow of liquor and money for the first time since 1978. Another feature of the polling held amid unprecedented bandobust was boycott by 200 voters of Kummaripeta (polling station 49), a hamlet of M.R.Agraharam in Therlam mandal, in protest against the indifferent attitude of elected representatives to their request for a culvert.

The culvert was proposed across the deep ‘gedda’ that separates the village from Therlam, the mandal headquarter village, during the monsoon. They were also protesting the lack of drinking water, poor quality of power supply and sanitation.

Minister’s diktat

On the drop in the polling percentage, DCC president V.V. Rama Rao told The Hindu that the Housing Minister’s men had asked Congress supporters in four mandals to stay away from voting. But in Therlam and Badangi mandals the turnout was good, he claimed.

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