Manthani: A tight race for TRS & Congress

Karimnagar: The election heat is increased in Manthani segment after the TRS declared its 105 sitting candidates, including sitting MLA Putta Madhukar and former MLA Sridhar Babu from Manthani constituency in Peddapalli district.

Manthani constituency, formed in 1952, has a good record of producing many eminent leaders and is a strong hold for Congress. Former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao had won five consecutive times as MLA from 1952 to 1978.

Later, in the reign of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, in 1978 Narayana Reddy won on Congress ticket and in 1983 Sripada Rao had won two times on Congress ticket. In 1994, Chandupatla Ram Reddy won on TDP ticket defeating Sripada Rao. After Sripada Rao was killed by Maoists in 1999 during election campaign, his son Sridhar Babu had been elected as MLA. Sridhar Babu won three times from Congress until 2014.

But the Congress received a major blow in 2014, which had been defeated by TRS candidate Putta Madhukar breaking all the records and now once again he is gearing up for the same result. He is speeding up his election campaign in Manthani constituency.

Former MLA Sridhar Babu, who won three consecutive times from Manthani, is confident that ticket would be allotted to him and is preparing all his weapons to enter into political battle to take revenge against the TRS. Meanwhile, BJP candidate Sathya Prakash, who contested in 2014 on BJP ticket, is confident enough that this time he will prove himself by winning the Manthani seat.

There are 1,91,251 voters in Manthani constituency, out of which 96,394 are men and 94,836 women and 21 are transgenders. The constituency is reserved for General, which consisting of 7 mandals, one municipality and about 165 village panchayats.

Speaking to The Hans India, former and sitting MLA and TRS candidate Putta Madhukar said that he is confident enough that he is going to win 100 per cent this time with bumper majority.

“The enormous development that took place in just 4 and half years under the TRS ruling, which was not happened in the last 70 years under the reign of previous governments, is going to play a crucial role in my winning and I am with the people serving them and solving all their problems”, he added.

Madhukar said that by investing about Rs 100 crores, number of developmental activities such as road laying works, providing drinking water facilities and construction of drains were carried in Muttaram, Kataram, Maha Muttaram and Mahadevpur mandals that fall under Manthani constituency along with sanctioning extra beds for Manthani Government Hospital and providing number of modern facilities in the hospital for the convenience of the patients, who visit the hospital from distant places.

Number of welfare schemes such as Kalyana Lakshmi, KCR Kits, farmer’s investment scheme, sheep and buffalo rearing schemes, distribution of fishlings freely to fishermen community and many more introduced by the TRS government attracted almost all the people and we are sure that this time they will vote for TRS candidates only, he added.

By Thirunagiri Venkateshwara Swamy