Highly educated in election fray

Nellore: This time, polls are giving huge inspiration to the voters where graduates, doctors, doctorates, lawyers, and chartered accountants are in the fray in the district. Out of 20 candidates for 10 Assembly constituencies, who are from the TDP and YSRCP, are highly educated. Only 3 from TDP are having 10th, ITI and Intermediate qualifications.

Candidates of both Lok Sabha constituencies such as Nellore and Tirupati are having MCom, CA, PhD and B Com, BL and B Tech qualifications. Nominees from the opposition seems to be better than the ruling party in terms of educational qualifications.

Even though, there is no bar for illiterates, competing in the polls, majority candidates, who are contesting for both Assembly and Lok Sabha segments, are having good qualifications which indicates healthy democracy, according to analysts. Seven candidates of TDP, who are contesting for Assembly segments other than Venkatagiri, Udayagiri and Kovur are having graduation, post-graduation, PhD, BTech and MTech degrees. Only Venkatagiri sitting MLA is having 10th standard, Udayagiri sitting MLA had cleared Intermediate and Kovur sitting MLA is having ITI welder qualification.

In case of YSRCP, only candidate having PUC qualification is contesting from Udayagiri and others having doctorate, law, engineering, graduation, and other medical and technical degrees. Nellore city TDP candidate and Minister P Narayana is doctorate in statistics. Mayor Aziz contesting from Rural Constituency is an MBA; Minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy from Sarvepalli an undergraduate; P Sunil Kumar from Gudur (SC) reserved constituency is a post-graduate; Sullurpet candidate and former Minister P Rathnam is also a doctorate; Kavali candidate K Vishnuvardhan Reddy is a technology graduate; and Atmakur candidate Bollineni Krishnaiah is a post-graduate in technology. MP candidate of the ruling party B Mastan Rao is a post graduate in commerce and chartered accountancy degree holder.

Whereas, YSRCP has fielded former IAS officer and former MP of Tirupati Dr V Varaprasada Rao, who is doctorate in science, for Gudur Assembly segment, who worked in various positions in Tamil Nadu government. Nellore city YSRCP contender P Anil Kumar Yadav is a dental doctor; Nellore Rural candidate Sridhar Reddy is an undergraduate; Kavali and Sullurpet sitting MLAs are technology graduates; Venkatagiri candidate and former Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy is a law graduate; Kovur candidate and former Minister N Prasanna Kumar Reddy is an undergraduate; Atmakur sitting MLA M Goutham Reddy a post-graduate in textiles; and only Udayagiri candidate M Chandrasekhar Reddy is having 12th qualification.

YSRCP Nellore MP candidate Adala Prabhakar Reddy is technology graduate. Tirupati Lok Sabha candidate from the opposition B Durgaprasada Rao is a law graduate. Further, BJP MP candidate S Suresh Reddy is a graduate; and BJP contender from Kovur Assembly segment is Dr Marem Vijaya Lakshmi, who is a doctor.

Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency Congress contender Chinta Mohan is also a doctor. In fact, 50 per cent of the independent candidates are having graduate degrees this time.