Caste factor may hurt YSR Congress
Contrary to expectations, the YSR Congress may face a tough fight in as many as eight out of 18 Assembly segments poised for bypolls. The public image of the YSR Congress candidates and caste polarisations are said to be the main reasons for this.
Even the private surveys conducted by the YSR Congress indicate that it is facing a tough challenge from the ruling Congress in Ramachandrapuram, Payakaraopet and Narsapuram Assembly segments and from the Telugu Desam in Rayadurgam, Anantapur, Rayachoti, Rajampet and Tirupati. The YSR Congress had already announced all the MLAs who were disqualified as its candidates.
However, the party is now in search of a candidate for Rayadurgam, as Kapu Ramachandra Reddy opted out as the candidate. In the internal survey it was revealed that the TD has an edge in the segment by three per cent votes. This has forced the party chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to choose a candidate with a good image either from Reddy or BC communities.
As far as other segments are concerned, caste polarisation appears to be dominating in Rajampet and Rayachoti in favour of the TD and Narsapuram and Ramachandrapuram for Congress candidates. The TD has named candidates from the dominant Balija community for Rajampet and Rayachoti and is expected to get an advantage due to the split in votes among the Congress and the YSR Congress candidates who belong to the Reddy community.
The general image of TD candidates in both these places is better than that of the other candidates. The ruling Congress already named its candidates both in Rajampet and Rayachoti much against the expectations of the erstwhile Praja Rajyam leaders who want candidates from the Balija community since they feel this would fetch more votes.
They argue there is no point in fielding candidates from the Reddy community since a major part of the community had gone to the YSR Congress party. The erstwhile PR leaders are also likely to extend support to TD. The biggest problem for the YSR Congress is the candidate, Prasad Raju, himself in Narsapuram segment in West Godavari district. Congress candidate Kottapalli Subbarayudu, formerly of the PR and TD seems to have an advantage over Prasad Raju. Mr Raju’s general behaviour in the Kapu-dominated constituency is the only minus point as far as the YSR Congress is concerned. This has led Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy to invite former minister and Kapu leader Chegondi Hari Rama Jogaiah into the party to bail out Mr Prasad Raju.
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