Bollineni Vs Mekapati in Udayagiri

Nellore: Th elections are acid test for Udayagiri legislator Bollineni Venkata Rama Rao from the ruling party, who faced allegations on his role in scam occurred in Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) in Maharashtra, turmeric scam in the district and others as the opposition levelled many such allegations against him.

Mekapati Chandrasekhar Reddy from the opposition, who witnessed defeat in the last elections is testing his luck this time too from the constituency. This constituency is also famous as Vice President Venkaiah Naidu won in 1978, 1983 polls as Janata and BJP candidate. Bollineni Rama Rao won the polls in 2014 for the first time with a majority of 3,622 votes over his YSRCP rival Mekapati Chandrasekhar Reddy. Since he was elected, he has been facing difficult situation with opposition which has been focusing on him levelling allegations in corruption.

In fact, Nagpur ACB sleuths named the legislator Rama Rao and also R Srinivasulu Reddy for alleged dwindling of funds of Vidarbha Irrigation Development Corporation (VIDC) and they booked cases under Sections 420, 120 (b) and 109 of IPC and 13 (1) (d) and 13 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 for involvement in the tendering process along with D-Thakkar's Firm. Local NGO Jan Manch filed a writ in Nagpur High Court bench on the issue.

The Maharashtra government ordered for a probe on the scam and the ACB confirmed that the earnest money for Srinivasa Constructions of Rama Rao was actually sourced from the bank account of D-Thakkar company which provided fake experience certificates along with the documents. Still, the investigation is going on. Since 1999, Congress, Swatantra party, BJP and others won the polls.

Kambham Vijayarami Reddy also won as an independent from the constituency in 1994. In 1999, Vijayaramireddy also won the polls from the TDP. After the polls, the TDP bagged again the seat only during 2014 elections. M Chandrasekhar Reddy, who was defeated in 1999 polls won from the constituency in 2004, 2009 polls on the Congress ticket and 2012 by-poll from the YSRCP with a comfortable majority.

Nellore sitting MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy also won from the constituency in 1985 on the Congress ticket. "This is really interesting elections as the judgment of voters will reveal their confidence on the sitting legislator. Majority leaders, who tried ticket from the ruling party this time may not work heartily which is a setback.

The YSRCP which bagged good number of seats during the last polls is waiting for opportunity this time," said a senior leader from the ruling party. According to 2018 voters list, there are 2,12,292 voters and 283 polling stations in Udayagiri constituency. The SC population is 20.53 per cent as per 2011 census.