Cross-voting to play spoilsport

Nellore: Nellore Parliamentary constituency is going to witness caste based voting pattern this time as the TDP fielded Beeda Mastan Rao from Yadava community whereas YSRCP Nellore sitting MLA Anil Kumar Yadav is also from the same community. There are around 1.5 lakh votes from the Yadava community in the entire Lok Sabha constituency.

With the addition of new voters (up to March 15), the electorate has increased from 22.06 lakh to 23.91 in the district. In fact, Adala Prabhakar Reddy expected ticket for Nellore Lok Sabha constituency and the TDP finally declared ticket for Nellore Rural constituency which made the senior leader disheartened and he shifted to the YSRCP.

As no option left, the TDP decided Beeda Mastan Rao as the candidate for LS constituency though he was preparing to contest from Kavali Assembly segment. Here, the party considered his candidature based on caste equations. "Kandukur has a strong vote bank for the TDP and population of Yadava community is around 35,000-40,000 votes.

In Nellore city segment too, caste is dominating and YSRCP candidate Anil is also from the same community. So, to check influence of the opposition, party decided to field Mastan Rao," said a senior leader.Earlier the situation was different. Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy from the YSRCP was sitting MP and the city MLA Anil Kumar is also from the same party. So, there was no caste issue.

This time, there may be chances for tie since BC voters have to think twice while casting their vote since there may be confusion whom to support because their party affiliations. In fact, in Nellore district, majority leaders were from Reddy and Kapu (Balija locally) communities. Mastan Rao won from Kavali Assembly constituency in 2009 elections and he lost the seat in 2014 elections. He was defeated by YSRCP nominee Pratap Kumar Reddy.

The TDP district president and MLC Beeda Ravichandra is younger brother of Masthan Rao. Nellore LS constituency is having Assembly segments of Nellore city, Nellore Rural, Kovur, Atmakur, Udayagiri, Kavali and Kandukur (Prakasam district).

As part of strategy to win Nellore Lok Sabha seat, the TDP fielded Minister Narayana from Nellore city, Mayor Abdul Aziz Nellore Rural constituency, Bollineni Krishnaiah-Atmakur segment and Katamreddy Vishnuvardhan Reddy in Kavali. The TDP finalised candidature of Aziz after duly considering possibility of minority votes from the rural constituency that fetches LS candidate.

Bollineni Krishnaiah is having strong cadre in Atmakur and also in some parts of Udayagiri constituency. Katamreddy Vishnuvardhan Reddy is also having contacts and cadre Allur, Kavali Rural and also some parts of the Kovur constituency as he served as legislator of erstwhile Allur constituency.

In 2014 elections, Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy of YSRCP won Nellore Lok Sabha seat by defeating TDP's Adala Prabhakar Reddy with a majority of 13,478 votes. According to 2011 census, the Nellore Parliamentary constituency has 19.23 per cent Scheduled Caste (SC) population.