Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh, who is the son of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, has surprised everyone by choosing to make his election debut from a constituency close to Amaravathi. It is not entirely true that the political scion of Nara-Nandamuri family has no connection with Mangalagiri constituency.
Though the guest house, where the family has been residing since three years, falls under Mangalagiri, he can bank on history to feel more at home. Lokesh’s grandfather and popular Telugu actor who enjoyed a demi-god status, NT Rama Rao, captivated the audience with the song, “Jai Kottu Telugoda” from the movie Palletooru which released in 1952. The song instantly became a symbol of Telugu pride. The actor popularised and owned up the song so much that he later used it for political campaigning after he started Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and also on other important occasions.
In the recently released second part of NTR biopic, a remixed version of the song plays in the background while NTR collects funds for flood-affected areas. Now, to the interesting part: the song was written by Vemulapalli Srikrishna, who served as the MLA of Mangalagiri. The communist leader was also a poet and journalist. Srikrishna, a native of Mangalagiri, contested on CPI ticket multiple times in 1960s and 1970s and was also the leader of opposition in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh Assembly.
But, it is no song and dance for Lokesh in Mangalagiri as he tries hard to sell the Amaravati dream. Less than 48 hours after his ticket was announced, Lokesh was seen announcing that he will turn Mangalagiri into Gachibowli (IT hub in Hyderabad) if elected. It will be no cakewalk for the young TDP leader to sail through his first election. The sitting MLA, A Ramakrishna Reddy is from YSRCP. The TDP has never won this seats in the last three decades. Another disadvantage for Lokesh is that the powerful community he belongs to, the Kammas, are very less in number in the constituency. The current MLA, Ramakrishna Reddy, has earned some goodwill for being accessible and also fighting on behalf of farmers who refused to part with their land for building the state capital. The previous candidate of TDP was from the weavers community who are the largest in terms of voters, and replacing him with Lokesh can also result in a backlash.
Despite the grim picture, what prompted Lokesh to pick this seat among at least half a dozen others seems to be the result of developments that have taken place in the last few years. Mangalagiri falls in the AP Capital Region. The CM’s guest house and party office are also located here. Apart from that, government buildings, corporate offices and training centres have also come up in this constituency. One of the major routes to reach the secretariat and Assembly in Amaravathi is also through Mangalagiri. The area might have gotten busy but along with that the land prices have increased. According to locals, land rates in some prime areas have increased by a minimum of five to six times. A number of locals, have also made use of one of the state government’s scheme to construct office spaces and lease it to the administration who will pay the rent, whether it is occupied or not by business establishments. A few corporate offices also opened their centres in the area providing employment to the locals.
The beneficiaries or those who believe Lokesh’s promise of transformation may vote for TDP. It will be a very tight contest, at least going by 2014 results where the difference between losing and winning candidate was just 12 votes.
(This story was first published in The Week)
