Hindupur: For Balakrishna, victory is always taken for granted

Hindupur (Sri Sathya Sai) : If there is any one candidate in any Assembly constituency who can take their victory for granted, it is Nandamuri Balakrishna. Not Jagan Mohan Reddy, not N Chandrababu Naidu or Pawan Kalyan can take their voters for granted. Only Balakrishna enjoys that privilege. Even at the height of Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy wave in the state, Balakrishna remained unaffected. No wave of rival parties could conquer matinee idol Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao’s influence in the constituency.

Hindupur like any other town is undergoing generational transformation with the youth pursuing academic and technical education and this kind of patronage by old timers cannot be taken for granted for long. As the old generation fades away, so will the craze for the ageold film personalities.

Of course, there is discontentment among neutral voters that no development is taking place in the town. Unfortunately, NT Rama Rao himself did not contribute to Hindupur’s development and so is Hari Krishna and Bala Krishna.

In fact, all members of NTR family paid only occasional visits. They did not apply their mind to constituency development nor on doing something memorable for the constituency. The love and affection for the NTR family members by the people were not reciprocated by the ones who served as MLAs despite their high connections. If Balakrishna had asked Chandrababu Naidu for a Rs 1,000 crore development package, he would have obliged but Balakrishna's heart was not on his constituency.

If one goes down the memory lane, the constituency provided leadership to 'Save democracy ' movement to other districts in 1984 when NTR was dethroned by Indira Gandhi with the support of Nadendla Bhaskara Rao, a minister in NTR's Cabinet.

Even at the height of YSR popularity caused by his padayatra which brought the Congress to power in 2004, the people voted for Balakrishna, son of N T Rama Rao. In 2019 too, the people remained loyal to him at a time when scores of TD stalwarts were washed away by the Jagan wave.

The constituency was founded in 1952 and since then in 1955, 1965, 1972 and in 1978 voted for the Congress Party. Since 1983, the people's loyalties were shifted to N T Rama Rao and the TDP he founded. In 1983, the new party TDP overthrew the Congress Party.

In 1985, 1989 and in 1994, NTR won from the constituency. In 1996, Nandamuri Hari Krishna contested and won in a byelection. After the death of NTR, TDP candidates continued to win in 1999, 2004 and 2009, 2014 and 2019 Assembly elections.

Balakrishna representing the constituency since 2014, visits the constituency two to three times in year and is rarely available to people.