NIRMAL: There is a tough fight between the Congress and TRS in Nirmal. Both the candidates Allola Indrakaran Reddy and Aleti Maheshwar Reddy are confident of winning the election and trying to expose the weaknesses of their opponents.
News is making rounds in the political circles that both Indrakaran Reddy and Maheshwar Reddy are ready to spend huge amounts of money to bribe the voters.
Nirmal Assembly constituency is considered as one of the seat where costly elections are being fought in the state. In 2014, Indrakaran Reddy of BSP won the elections with 8,857 votes majority against his nearest rival Srihari Rao (TRS) and Maheshwar Reddy (Congress). reddy later joined the TRS.
There is not much difference of votes between the winning candidate and his nearest rival in the last two elections in the Nirmal constituency.
BJP candidate Swarna Reddy is also giving tough fight as the party cadre’s morale got a boost after BJP party president Amit Shah visited Nirmal and addressed a public meeting. Both Indrakaran Reddy and Maheshwar Reddy are considering victory as a prestigious issue as they are caretaker minister and DCC president respectively.
During his electioneering in Nirmal town, Indrakran Reddy said municipal chairman Appala Ganesh was likely to switch sides to the Congress from TRS. Accordingly, after a few days, Ganesh joined the Congress just a few days before the elections. “Ganesh had been very helpful when he was with me by breathing life into the party cadre. He projected himself as being very close to me but that is not true.”
Indrakaran Reddy said that the welfare schemes and development works taken up by the TRS will bring votes to him. He said the TRS government promised to give '6 lakh for the construction of 2BHK to the beneficiaries and that they can construct the house wherever they have availability of land, unlike in the past.
Bhulaxmi, living inMujiya in Nirmal mandal, said she was getting pension but that she does not have a double bedroom house and she is expecting it would be sanctioned this time.
Padma, a resident of Medipalli in Nirmal, said she was not getting pension and living with daily wage and it would be good if government sanctioned pensions.
There are mixed reaction over the government welfare schemes as some are getting the benefits while some others did not.
The Rythu Bandhu scheme has beneifted rich farmers but did nothing to the tenant farmers. Similarly, pensions are also being taken by a few while others were not given.
