Kovur result haunting Congress leaders

Nellore: It seems that the recent Kovur Assembly result is dampening the spirits of the prospective candidates in the Congress.

Prominent leaders of the Congress, who showed a lot of enthusiasm in contesting before the declaration of the Kovur by-election result, were no longer keen to contest the impending by-polls to Udayagiri Assembly and Nellore LS seats.

The by-elections will have to take place in the Nellore parliamentary constituency and Udayagiri assembly constituency, which became necessary after the resignation of the Mekapati brothers of the Y S R Congress Party.

The Y S R Congress Party, which is in a combative mood after the victory in the recent Kovur by-election, has already selected Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy for the Nellore parliamentary constituency and Mekapati Chandrasekhara Reddy for the Udayagiri Assembly segment.

The Telugu Desam Party leader, Kambham Vijayarami Reddy, recently switched over to the Congress and was trying for a Congress ticket.

The Telugu Desam Party, which sensed this development much earlier, took precautionary measures and announced Bollineni Rama Rao, who along with the party chief N Chandrababu Naidu attended the Raithu poru bata. For some time now, Rama Rao was taking steps to strengthen the party cadre.

In the Congress, though Vijayarami Reddy, Madala Janaki Ram, former Kavali MP Magunta Parvatamma, former Zilla Parishad chairman and FCI director Chenchala Babu were enthusiastic in contesting the Assembly election from here initially. The Kovur by-election result, however, had proved to be a dampener.

For the parliamentary constituency, Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy is very eager to contest on the YSRCP ticket. The former Kavali MLA V Venugopala Reddy, who lost the election last time on the Telugu Desam ticket, wants to test his luck here again.

But in the Congress camp, several Congress leaders like Nedurumalli Janardhana Reddy, his wife N Rajyalakshmi, Nellore (Rural) MLA Anam Vivekananda Reddy, Magunta Parvatamma and also the names of a few industrialists were making the rounds. But after the announcement of the Kovur by-election result, they were no longer keen in contesting from here.

Another name that was being prominently heard is that of Nedurumalli Ramkumar Reddy, son of former chief minister N. Janardhan Reddy.

The Nellore Lok Sabha constituency, which covers seven assembly constituencies, has close affinity to some of the mandals in Prakasam district.