Chandrababu Naidu campaigns for self after long time

Tirupati: Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu campaigned “exclusively” for himself at Kuppam on Sunday. He has done this after a gap of close to three elections.

Mr Naidu who made is political arangetram from Chandragiri constituency in 1978, won his first election on a Congress ticket, but lost the next elections in 1983, his only defeat in his political career spanning close to four decades.

Mr Naidu who joined the TD in 1984, returned to the poll scene only in 1989 and chose to contest from Kuppam, a remote constituency in Chittoor district. Since then there was no turning back. He not only cemented his seat from here, but also rose to become the party chief within a decade by replacing his father-in-law N.T. Rama Rao.

The margin of his victory since his entry into the constituency rose steadily before declining in 2009. In 1989 it was 6,918, 1994 - 56,588, 1999 - 65,687, 2004 - 59,588 and 2009 - 46,066.

While Mr Naidu personally campaigned for his candidature between 1989-1994, since 1999 he has never taken poll campaigns in his constituency.

M. Subramanyam Reddy, promoted by Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy against the TD chief, succeeded in contesting against Mr Naidu thrice on a trot on a Congress ticket and bringing down the victory margins. This time around, YSRC’s Chandramouli Reddy, a former bureaucrat, will give competition to Mr Naidu. The TD has set its sight on a huge victory margin of around one lakh. However, with the youth of the constituency allied with the YSRC, the “traditional” vote bank which the Congress had built against Mr Naidu is now likely to favour the YSRC. As a result the margins might not be anywhere close to what the TD believes they would be.