Kalinga community voters to decide fate of candidates

Srikakulam: Kalinga community voters are the deciding factors in Tekkali Assembly constituency in the district which had witnessed 17 elections which includes general and by-elections between 1952 and 2019.

Of these 17 elections, Kalinga community leaders were elected 11 times to the Assembly. The Tekkali constituency consists of Tekkali, Kotabommali, Santhabommali and Nandigama mandals. In all these mandals, Kalinga community voters constitute 60 per cent and the next place is occupied by Turpu Kapu community voters and they are followed by Polinativelama community voters.

Kalinga community leaders, Ronanki Satyannarayana, Sattaru Lokanadham Naidu, Bammidi Narayana Swamy, Attada Janardhana Rao, Duvvada Nagavali, Hanumanthu Appayya Dora and Korla Revathipathi were elected as MLAs from the constituency in 1962, 1972, 1978, 1983, 1989, 1995, 1999 and again in 2004 Hanumanthu Appayya Dora was elected as MLA.

Again in 2009 Korla Revathipathi was elected but he died after a short period after the elections. Following his death, Revathipati’s wife Korla Bharathi was elected as MLA.

Tekkali Assembly constituency has 2,22,222 voters. Of these, Kalinga community voters are more than 1.20 lakhs and Turpu Kapu community voters are 50,000. This constituency has a number of rice mills, granite quarries and polishing units where local workers are getting employment opportunities.