Vanpic gobbles up sympathy wave
ONGOLE: The flyover across the railway tracks near the Kothapatnam bus stand in Ongole is heavily guarded. Rapid Action Force personnel are in position along the bridge and there is an armed police post at the end towards the seashore village of Kothapatnam.
Incoming vehicles are checked randomly. The flyover leads to the anger lands in Kothapatnam and Ongole rural mandals, where large tracts have been taken from farmers and given to the infamous Vanpic project.
Minister D Manikya Varaprasad has been active in mobilising people demanding return of the land to the original owners but then the oustees who pitched protest tents at Alluru packed up a couple of days ago.
This is where it gets a little tricky. The farmers are not exactly angry that their lands have been taken. The reason for their ire is that they were short-changed and paid only a pittance as compensation while fat cat promoters and their political cronies made off with the Vanpic booty.
Tempers rose when people learnt that the CBI had mentioned in its chargesheeet that Vanpic promoter Nimmagadda Prasad showed payments of over Rs 3.5 lakh per acre while the farmers got only Rs 40,000-80,000. Now they want the remaining amount.
The Vanpic scam has come as a godsend for both the Congress and the TDP to beat Jagan's party with in the ongole bypoll campaign. This is where three-time MLA and key Jagan crony Balineni Srinivasa Reddy is locked in a keen triangular contest with Magunta Parvathamma of the Congress and Damacharla Janardhan of the TDP.
Next to Kadapa, Ongole is the most important fief for the YSR family. Their satraps here are Y V Subba Reddy and Balineni. While the latter, whose disqualification led to the present byelection, has a personal network of supporters.
On the other hand, Parvathamma, being the widow of former MP Magunta Subbarami Reddy, enjoys a lot of goodwill among people. She was herself an MP during 1996-98. Janardhan, grandson of TDP leader and former minister Damacharla Anjaneyulu too counts on a strong support base.
The much-anticipated sympathy wave in favour of YSRC in the aftermath of Jagan Mohan Reddy's arrest is not quite visible in this Vanpicscape. Supporters in the 20-30 age group, who constitute 25 per cent of the electorate, are spread across all the three main political parties.
While Balineni, popularly known as Vasu, tries to whip up publicity for his party, Parvathamma banks mainly on her past connection with the constituency.
Her husband Subbarami Reddy is still remembered fondly by people. On the other hand, Janardhan, running for the Assembly for the first time, is going all out to build a personal connect with people with TDP cadres fanning out on a person-to-person contact programme.
However, all the three major contenders appear to have adopted a common pattern of electioneering: road shows by the candidates, area canvassing by local cadres and visits by high-profile leaders of respective parties.
In the Congress, chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and leaders like Botcha Satyanarayana, Chiranjeevi, Ghulam Nabi Azad and others have tried to do their bit for Parvathamma.
TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu has already toured the constituency two times and may make another visit. YSRC's sole campaigner Vijayamma is scheduled to address a meeting in the coming few days.
Additionally, parties, especially the Congress, are sending leaders belonging to different communities to gather those votes.
In an election devoid of any issue other than the Jagan factor, his arrest does not seem to have added anything new in terms of support for the YSRC candidate.
On the other hand, some say the neutral voters who normally decide in the eleventh hour, are shying away from Jagan's party, with allegations of his corruption making headlines on a daily basis. However, the YSRC finds hope in the fact that the anti-Jagan vote is split between the Congress and TDP.
News Posted: 5 June, 2012
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