Allagadda, in the firm grip of Bhuma family

ALLAGADDA, (Kurnool Dt): Want to take a look at the ilaka of Bhuma family? Then, welcome to Allagadda. As one drives into the dusty little town from Nandyal about 20 km away, one is greeted by the uncanny silence of the town which for a discerning ear tells stories of blood and gore that had made it.

The constituency is going to polls on June 12, along with 17 other Assembly and one Lok Sabha segment. Only six months ago, an elderly person, his wife and son, and a follower were attacked in a gangland fashion by a group of people wielding knives. All of them died on the spot and his father-in-law was wounded grievously.

His another son escaped because he was away in Vijayawada for studies. After one month, two persons were done to death while they were on their way home.

In a nutshell, this is Allagadda, a typical Rayalaseema factionist zone, where political parties or their ideologies do not matter. Here, people are committed deeply to their respective faction leaders.

'We will vote for Shobhakka. She is there to take care of our needs,' Mohan, a youth at Harivaram village in Allagadda constituency, says, referring to Bhuma Shobha Nagireddy.

'In our village, we vote for her. Do one thing. Call akka's number and then call Gangula Pratap Reddy's number (Congress candidate). Akka answers the call on the first ring. If Pratap Reddy answers the call, I am ready to vote for him,' he says, to establish the point that Shobha is accessible, but not Pratap Reddy.

Though Shobha Nagireddy was in Telugu Desam for a long time, then switched sides and joined PRP in 2009, it does not matter in the constituency. She is now in YSR Congress, but even that is immaterial to the constituents. The refrain in the constituency is, 'We do not care where she is. We vote for her because of her.'

Shobha herself exudes confidence of winning the seat without any difficulty. 'Even without any one campaigning for me I can win the seat. After Jagan Mohan Reddy and his mother Vijayamma visited Allagadda, there is now a synergy. Their visit, in fact, added momentum to poll campaign,' she told, taking a break from her house-to-house visit in Sirivella village.

She says she did not know much about Jagan Mohan Reddy until she joined the YSR Congress Party. However, she knew YSR well as he was a family friend, though she was in the TDP then and subsequently in PRP. Kadapa is only next door to Allagadda.

What is helping Shobha more than anything is the poor poll management by the softspoken Congress candidate Gangula Pratap Reddy.

'Polling is only a few days away and till a day ago there was no Congress leader visiting our village. Then Pratap Reddy came and after he left, everything was quiet on the Congress front. Looks like the Congress is giving away the seat to Shobha on a platter,' said Kumar, at Harivaram.

Pratap Reddy tries to look confident. 'I am going to win the election. Ours is a political family. My father Thimma Reddy was an MP and an MLA. I was an MP and an MLA twice in the past. I am a well-known person in the constituency,' he says and points out that he does not have to depend on the legacy of any one, including YSR to win votes.

'I depend on my my father's legacy. The schemes introduced by the Congress government are doing well,' he says and rubbishes the criticism that he is not accessible to people and that he does not live in Allagadda. 'This is a malicious campaign. I and my brother Prabhakar Reddy stay here all the time,' he said.

Initially, he was reluctant to contest the seat because he wanted to go to Rajya Sabha, not because he was afraid of defeat.

The Telugu Desam Party is fielding Erigela Rampulla Reddy, but he is not making much impact on the voters. Though Bhuma couple shifted to PRP and then to YSR Congress, Rampulla Reddy stayed on in Telugu Desam.

'The Telugu Desam Party does not exist in this constituency. Shobha was an MLA and her husband was an MP because of their own standing and not because of Telugu Desam.

When they moved to PRP their voters too moved with them and when they joined YSR Congress, their supporters are with her again,' K Venkata Subba Reddy, a resident of Alamuru says.

Probably this is the reason why the TDP is concentrating more on Bhuma couple in an attempt to wean away at least a modest number of votes.

Chiru gets cold response

When Chiranjeevi visited the constituency, he made a fervent appeal to the voters to defeat Shobha Nagireddy.

'In 2009, I asked you to elect her as PRP MLA. But now I am requesting you to defeat her. Please forgive me for seeking your votes in her favour in 2009,' he said repeatedly, giving his opponents an opportunity to make fun of him.

'Will he come in 2014 and ask us to elect someone else and seek our forgiveness for supporting the Congress candidate?' M Prasad, a Balija voter at Govindapalli said.

The constituency has a significant population of Balijas (about 50,000), of the total 2.02 lakh electorate and YSR Congress leaders claim they are with them and Chiranjeevi's influence on them had ended long ago.

'Chiranjeevi failed to establish himself as a leader. He never bothered about us after he took our support in 2009 elections.He will not be of any use to Balijas. We do not dance to his tunes any more,' V Thirupal, a Balija leader said.