GUNTUR: The Tenali Assembly constituency is witnessing a triangular fight among the TDP, YSRC and Jana Sena. While sitting TDP MLA Alapati Rajendra Prasad is sweating it hard to record a third consecutive victory from this Assembly segment, the last time loser of YSRC, Annabathuni Siva Kumar, and Jana Sena’s Nadendla Manohar are testing their luck to come out winners as well.
BCs, Kapus, Malas, Kammas, Madigas, Arya Vysyas, minority Muslims, alongside the urban voters living in the Tenali municipal area, are said to be the deciding factors in the outcome of the polls to be held on April 11. While the rural voters could be influenced by a casteist approach, the urban voters are looking for solution to their daily problems, such as those concerning shortage of drinking water, inadequate road network, housing, underground drainage etc. Tenali town is the fifth biggest urban centre in this region after Vijayawada, Guntur, Nellore and Ongole.
T Ramakrishna, N Rama Rao and other residents of Tenali said that the urban voters are totally different from the rural voters and how they cast their votes depends on the assurance given by the candidates and not on caste factor.
They can keep a tab on the false promises made by the candidates, regardless of the government allocated budget for development in the area. But sadly now a days money is influencing the voters and that is a big blow to the democracy, the locals said.
Jana Sena candidate Manohar said that he would give top priority to resolving the problems of people in urban and rural areas of Tenali Assembly constituency. He alleged that he sanctioned `90 crore to solve the drinking water problems during his tenure and proposed a plan to meet the demand of the public up to 2050, but the later governments ignored the issue and as a result the people of Tenali were still facing severe water problem.
He said that the severe drinking water problem despite presence of the Krishna river was indeed a shame and therefore he was going to resolve the drinking water related issue first. He said that the people were expecting a political change in the society and “so we will continue to fight to resolve the issues of public in the coming years.”
TDP candidate Rajendra Prasad said that he would like to provide houses to all eligible poor in the Assembly segment under the NTR Housing scheme. He said that NTR housing scheme would continue till all the eligible beneficiaries in the State were allotted a house.
He said that over 8,000 houses would be allotted to the beneficiaries in the coming days. He also said that the people were receiving him well during his campaign and he was expecting TDP to gain in the coming election.
He said that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu always implemented schemes to uplift the poor people in the society. He asked the public to back him and promised them a better society if they voted him to power in the coming election.
YSRC candidate Siva Kumar said that he had always been with the people of Tenali to resolve their issues, but the TDP government always sanctioned schemes for the people as per instructions of the Janmabhoomi committees and so people had lost faith in TDP rule. He lamented that the TDP government and local leaders were negligent about clearing the long pending four-lane road project from Pedaravuru to Nandivelugu, which was a necessity to lay the road for development of Tenali Assembly constituency.
He alleged that the TDP government was trying to give water to multinational companies ignoring supply to local people and as a result the people were facing severe drinking water problems in the town. He said that the Tenali town was yet to be developed despite the capital city of Amaravati being just 30 km away and alleged that the TDP government was negligent to develop the town, in spite of the capital city of Hyderabad being 300 km away from Tenali.