Post date: May 07, 2011 6:56:24 AM
The Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula Assembly by-elections on May 8, will be like a mother of all battles witnessed never before. The Kadapa election has attracted nationwide interest and become a prestige issue for the ruling Congress which is keen to wrest the seat from the stranglehold of Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, son of the late former chief minister YSR.
Jagan, after breaking away from the Congress, launched a new party Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress (YSR Congress) a few months ago and is seeking re-election to Parliament from Kadapa. The party has fielded Health Minister D L Ravindra Reddy against Jagan in Kadapa and former minister Y S Vivekananda Reddy against Y S Vijayamma, wife of Rajasekhara Reddy, in Pulivendula.
As many as 42 candidates are in the fray for the Kadapa LS seat and 25 for the Pulivendula Assembly seat. The interesting point is that eight independent candidates are contesting in the name of Jagan Mohan Reddy, obviously to confuse the electors.
In view of the seriousness of the by-elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) is making all arrangements to hold polling in a free and fair manner without any incidents. The fate of the candidates hangs on women voters for the simple reason that they outnumber men by more than 32,000.
The total number of voters in the Lok Sabha constituency comprising seven Assembly segments is 13,28,869. Of them, men are 6,48,355 and women 6,80,514.
Kadapa (1,04,891-M, 1,08336-F),
Jammalamadugu (1,00,948-M,1,07,681-F),
Proddatur (95,686-M, 1,02,172-F),
Pulivendula (93,002-M, 96,100-F),
Badvel (90,044-M 93,312-F),
Mydukur (84,655-M 89,765-F) and
Kamalapuram (79,129-M, 83,148-F).