The Hindu : A constituency represented by stalwarts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 16, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

A constituency represented by stalwarts

By A. Saye Sekhar

VIJAYAWADA, MARCH 15. Elections have always been a high-voltage affair for voters, who are mostly driven by emotions, in the Narasaraopet Assembly constituency. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has never lost this seat since 1983. And, what is interesting is that the party nominee, Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, who was elected from this constituency for five times consecutively, is seeking re-election for the sixth time. "I will be making a double hat-trick this time,'' he told The Hindu. The committed vote of the Congress and the TDP always remained constant in this constituency, while it is the neutral voter who tilts the balance. After the advent of the TDP, the neutral voters always sailed with Dr. Rao making him emerge victorious. Election in this Assembly constituency is prestigious for more than one reason.

Political stalwart from the State, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, the longest-serving Congress Chief Minister, was elected from this constituency in 1967. He was the Chief Minister from 1964 to 1971. Brahmananda Reddy served as a Minister in the Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy and Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Cabinets since the formation of Andhra Pradesh in 1956. Later, Brahmananda Reddy was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1971 and to the Lok Sabha in 1977 and 1980 and was inducted into Indira Gandhi's Cabinet. He also occupied the coveted post of the president of the All India Congress Committee.

Brahmananda Reddy's brother's son, Kasu Venkata Krishna Reddy, was elected from Narasaropet Assembly constituency in 1978. While he did not contest the 1983 Assembly polls, Dr. Sivaprasada Rao made his foray into the Assembly defeating the Congress candidate, B. Subba Reddy, by a margin of 14,557 votes. Dr. Rao scraped through in the 1985 elections with a majority of 2,064 votes when the Congress pitted Mr. Krishna Reddy against him. In the subsequent 1989 and 1994 elections, Dr. Rao had relatively junior contestants opposite him from the Congress making his election easy.

Dr. Rao trounced Mr. Krishna Reddy in the keenly fought 1999 Assembly elections with a majority of over 14,000 votes. Four TDP activists died in a major bomb blast in the nursing home-cum-residence of Dr. Rao on the eve of the polling. Following this, the Election Commission postponed the election in all the seven Assembly segments forming part of the Narasaraopet Lok Sabha constituency from the first to the last phase. `Bomb culture' and faction feuds always reigned supreme during elections in this constituency.

A heavyweight in the TDP in Guntur district, Dr. Sivaprasada Rao began his career as a Minister when the former Chief Minister, N.T.Rama Rao, gave him the coveted portfolio of home affairs in 1987. Dr. Rao, however, resigned from the Cabinet owning up moral responsibility for the murder of Vijayawada East MLA, Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga, and the incidents that ensued in the aftermath.

He joined the Chandrababu Naidu Cabinet in 1995 as a Minister for Major Irrigation. Later, he was made the Minister for Panchayat Raj. He continued in the post till the elections in 1999.

He was kept out of the Cabinet for a couple of years and later inducted as the Minister for Civil Supplies in 2001. He was eventually made Minister for Medical and Health.

NARASARAOPET

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Andhra Pradesh