TDP chief revives Madanapalle, Nagari demands

Tirupati: TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu has given a fresh lease of life for the demands for new Madanapalle district and to merge Nagari constituency in Tirupati district. During his three-day visit to the erstwhile Chittoor district, Naidu raised the sentiments of the people of these two areas when they actually abandoned their demands in despair.

There was a long pending demand from the people of western parts of the erstwhile Chittoor district for a separate Madanapalle district. Various sections of people have joined hands and formed Madanapalle Jilla Sadhana Samithi (MJSS) to fight for 633 days with various types of protests.

At one stage, they even put forth a demand to include them in Karnataka if the state government was not willing to announce Madanapalle district and said that the aspirations of the people of Madanapalle will be strongly manifested in the next Assembly elections.

Perhaps, after sensing the sentiments there, Naidu made his opinion public during his speech in mini Mahanadu at Madanapalle. He said that keeping in view its historical importance, Madanapalle should be made a separate district, including Punganur, which has been made part of Chittoor district against the aspirations of the people.

In the same breath, Naidu also said that Rajampet should be the district headquarters for other segments which clearly indicated that TDP was not happy with Rayachoti as district headquarters. He went on to say that the injustice to Madanapalle will be corrected soon after TDP comes back to power. As expected, this announcement has evoked immediate response from MJSS.

Speaking to The Hans India, MJSS convenor P T M Siva Prasad hailed the decision and said that the people were happy with it. "We welcome TDP chief's announcement. Madanapalle district will be a reality if not be sooner may be later. Definitely it will send positive signals in the constituency," he said.

Similarly, in Nagari, Naidu touched the sentiments of people there by saying that the constituency was torn into two pieces by merging three mandals in Chittoor district while the remaining two in Tirupati district. "These incorrect decisions will be corrected to include Nagari in Tirupati by the TDP government," he announced.

It may be recalled that both ruling and opposition parties have demanded the merger of Nagari in Tirupati district only. The sitting MLA and now minister R K Roja had submitted a representation directly to the Chief Minister asking for the same while TDP constituency in-charge Gali Bhanu Prakash conducted a signature campaign too.

Undoubtedly, the constituency is well connected with Tirupati by road and rail and the five mandals in the constituency were part of TUDA. The people of Nagari hailed Naidu's stand on the constituency and TDP is naturally looking at its positive impact in the next elections.