Crash of Chiru's Vote Bank Worries Congress
With the by-polls exactly a month away, more bad news has hit the Congress campaign. An internal report has expressed concern over the possible non-transfer of the Prajarajyam Party votes to the ruling party, and a worried PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana has directed the district Congress leaders to immediately coordinate a campaign with their erstwhile PRP leaders and ensure that the merger of the two parties gets reflected in the form of votes for the ruling party candidate in the by-polls.
Of the 18 assembly constituencies and one Lok Sabha seat going for the by-polls on June 12, the Kapu, Balija, Telaga, Ontari and Turpu Kapu communities have an influential say in almost 10 of them.
They include Narsannapet in Srikakulam, Payakaraopet in Visakhapatnam, Ramachandrapuram in East Godavari, Narsapuram and Polavaram in West Godavari, where they comprise nearly 18% of the electorate, and Rayachoti, Rajampet, Railway Koduru and Rayadurgam constituencies in Kadapa, Tirupati in Chittoor and Anantapur respectively where they command 24% or more of the total voter strength.
All the above-mentioned communities are said to have voted for the PRP in the last elections and with the Chiranjeevi party having merged with the Congress, the ruling party leaders have been in the firm belief that these votes would get transferred to them.
However, the filed report is indicating that it is not all that hunky dory for the Congress. "The PRP started as an anti-Congress and anti-TDP party and most of the Kapu-Balija members had moved to that party in the hope of ensuring an alternative leadership and voted in a big way for Chiranjeevi.
"However, the dislike for the Congress is still existing among many of these voters. Therefore, it is likely that not all of them will vote for the hand symbol," said a leader.
Thus according to the field report, in East and West Godavari districts, many of the PRP voters are moving towards the YSR Congress and a similar trend is also discernable in Kadapa, Kurnool and Anantapur districts.
In South costal Andhra region, the Balija and Kapu votes are getting divided between the YSR Congress and TDP, and according to the report, in Srikakulam, Vizainagaram and Visakhapatnam districts, the PRP vote bank is highly divided with many deciding to align with the YSR Congress.
Alarmed over the report, both chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and the PCC chief are making desperate moves to set right the situation.
"Only if we get a big majority in these constituencies can it be said that the Congress-PRP merger has taken place at the ground level," the chief minister said during his Payakaraopet tour.
On his part, Botsa has directed the district Congress leaders to immediately coordinate the campaign with the erstwhile PRP leaders and ensure that the Chiranjeevi vote bank remains intact with the Congress.
"The local Congress and PRP voters should work in coordination and ensure that the votes are completely transferred in favour of the hand symbol," the PCC president