The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), soon after storming to power in Andhra Pradesh in 2019, had set itself an ambitious target of wresting the Kuppam Assembly seat from Telugu Desam Party national president and seven-time MLA from the constituency Nara Chandrababu Naidu in the 2024 elections.
The ruling party cadre, led by Energy Minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy, had since left no stone unturned and let go no opportunity to counter the former Chief Minister on his home turf, accusing him of neglecting the constituency’s development despite representing it in the Legislative Assembly for seven times and helming the State for 14 years.
The YSRCP had even announced that its Kuppam MLC K.J. Bharath would be made Minister if he was voted to power in 2024. It had accused Mr. Naidu of denying BCs an opportunity to contest from Kuppam despite their dominant presence in the constituency.
Upping the ante, the YSRCP, banking on the slew of welfare schemes it had been implementing under its flagship Navaratnalu programme, came up with the slogan, ‘Why not 175?’, aiming at decimating the opposition TDP in the 2024 elections. It also went a step ahead and questioned, ‘Why not Kuppam?’, signalling that it had set its sights on the prestigious seat, considered the stronghold of the TDP, and Mr. Naidu in particular.
Except in the 1989 and 1994 Assembly elections, Mr. Naidu won the seat in 1999, 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019 without campaigning there even for a single day, which was a record of sorts. The party cadre pooled funds for his nomination and ensured his victory in every election.
With over 70% of the population in the Kuppam region spread across the four backward mandals of Kuppam, Ramakuppam, Shantipuram, and Gudupalle, it was a cakewalk for Mr. Naidu in the constituency. In the 2019 elections, Mr. Naidu had retained the seat though the YSRCP swept 13 of the 14 Assembly constituencies in combined Chittoor district.
In this backdrop, the violent clashes between the TDP and YSRCP activists, either in the presence of Mr. Naidu or before his proposed visit, witnessed in 2023 at Kuppam, Angallu and Punganur generated much political heat in the combined Chittoor district. Close to one hundred TDP cadres were booked in these incidents.
But his dramatic arrest for allegedly masterminding the skill development scam in September 2023 and his subsequent release from the Rajamahendravaram Central Prison after about 50 days, brought about a sea change in the political scenario of the Kuppam region.
The YSRCP’s political strategy is found to be going against public perception.
In this backdrop, Mr. Naidu, during his three-day visit to Kuppam in December 2023, exhorted his electorate to ensure his victory with a majority of one lakh votes.
The exhortation is seen as an attempt to reassert his position in the constituency and make light of the YSRCP’s ‘Why not Kuppam’ slogan.
Since Mr. Naidu’s election in Kuppam in 1989, the constituency has got a medical college, a university, highways, and garment industries. He was also the one who had ushered in a revolution in horticulture and floriculture with micro-irrigation schemes, claim TDP supporters.
“The political clashes in the region and the arrest of Mr. Naidu have made the TDP’s win a foregone conclusion,” the party activists say, and believe that the people of Kuppam would never ditch Mr. Naidu.
“I had voted for Mr. Naidu in all the seven elections since 1989. When he was first elected, Kuppam was nothing but a forest. In 35 years, he had done whatever he could to develop Kuppam. The 2024 elections may be his last, as his age and health issues may keep him away from the race in 2029. I will be sinning if I do not vote for him now,” said a 65-year-old farmer in Kuppam.
Even as the ‘last vote for Naidu’ slogan has been finding more takers in the constituency, speculation is rife that Mr. Naidu, for the first time in his political career, may contest from a second constituency too in the ensuing elections, and it has not been denied by the party.
