Anantapur: There is trouble brewing for YSRC candidates from many parts of the state after it was found that pastor K.A. Paul’s Praja Santhi Party had fielded at least 27 candidates with names similar to their own, including eight in Anantapur.
Worse, the YSRC ‘fan’ symbol bears a close resemblance to PSP’s ‘helicopter’ which will further confuse the voters. It was being alleged that the Telugu Desam was behind the idea of creating confusion.
The YSRC has lodged a complaint against the Praja Santhi Party with the EC accusing it of deliberately fielding candidates with similar sounding names.
In the 2004 elections, voters got confused and voted for TRS candidates, taking away valuable votes from the Hindupur Lok Sabha candidate which ended in his defeat. The margin at that time was 2,000 while the TRS candidates got 18,000 votes. After the recent TS elections, TRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had alleged that similarity between symbols has cost the party a significant number of votes. He secured the barring of symbols, ‘truck’ and ‘iron’. He also made a few changes to the ‘car’ symbol.
An indicative list showed how similar the names are: YSRC’s Ananta Venkatrami Reddy faces P. Venkatrami Reddy of the PSP, Mr Kethireddy Venkatrami Reddy (YSRC) faces P. Venkatrami Reddy (PSP) at Dharmavaram, at Kadiri Mr Venkata Sidda Reddy (YSRC) faces Mr Channka Sidda Reddy (PSP). At Rayadurgam it is Mr Y. Rama Chandra Reddy (YSRC) against Mr U. Ramachandra Reddy (PSP). The list goes on — Pedakurapadu: Sankara Rao Namburu (YSRC) versus Namburi Sankara Rao (PSP); Parchur: Daggubati Venkateswara Rao (YSRC) against Daggubatti Venkateswarlu (PSP); Ongole: Balineni Srinivas Reddy (Ongole) against Balineni Srinivasa Rao (PSP); and at Jammalamadugu: Mule Sudheer Reddy (YSRC) against Maram Reddy Sudheer Reddy (PSP).
