Kadapa: More than just a by-election

It’s just a by-election to a single state Assembly seat and a lone Parliament constituency. Yet, a dozen ministers from the Andhra Pradesh cabinet have been camping here for the past fortnight. That includes Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy.

The stakes are high for the ruling Congress. In the fray are late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s (YSR) son, Jagan Mohan Reddy, and widow, Vijayamma, who rebelled and floated their own grouping, the YSR Congress Party. By-polls to the Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula assembly constituencies, the coming Monday, have turned into a fight between Kadapa and Delhi, between YSR’s ghost, as interpreted by his kin and followers, and the party establishment led by Sonia Gandhi.

YSR, who died in a chopper crash in 2009, is considered to still hold pride of place among the 1.3 million voters here and is the single biggest factor in these elections. The elections are meant to establish who shares how much of his political legacy.

“We had a big tree which gave us shelter. It no more exists and all we are left with is this sapling. It is our responsibility to see it grow as a big tree,” says Subba Raidu of Vempalle town, supposedly a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) stronghold in Pulivendula.

In less than six years as chief minister, YSR changed the face of Kadapa. With well developed roads, both two-lane and four-lane, ring roads around Kadapa and Pulivendula, a host of professional colleges, including an Indian Institute of Information Technology, an engineering college and a medical college, spinning mills and industries, the town can easily qualify for a state headquarters.

YSR also invested huge amounts in the Gandi Kota project and Chitravati lift irrigation scheme to irrigate Pulivendula and neighbouring areas. The projects are yet to be completed and the people here feel had he been alive, the water-scarce region would have overcome its problems.

The development is evident. A group of daily wage labourers from neighbouring Kurnool district, closer to Hyderabad, says it is easier to find work in Kadapa and also get a wage of Rs 350-400 a day for a simple masonry job, compared with Rs 250 in their own district.

YSR’s son and wife are banking on these developments. “I have not seen the people of Kadapa rallying entirely around one person (Jagan) like this in my entire life,” says N F Baba Vali, 70, in Vempalle, the biggest town after Pulivendula.

The Congress, too, is not far behind. YSR’s political legacy is at centrestage for both. “Unparalleled greed for power, apart from amassing huge wealth through illegal means” is what the Congress is attacking Jagan with. Its newly-joined star campaigner, actor-turned politician Chiranjeevi, held his maiden road show in support of Congress Lok Sabha candidate and state health minister D L Ravindra Reddy.

For TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu , who waged bitter political battles against YSR when in power and in the Opposition, Jagan is as much a threat to his party. Naidu too, has embarked on an extensive campaign for his Lok Sabha candidate, M V M Reddy.