Nandigama assembly by-election campaigning comes to an end

Campaigning for the Nandigama assembly constituency bypoll ended peacefully here on Thursday evening, official sources said. Polling is scheduled for Saturday and counting would be held on September 16.

The by-election was necessitated after the sudden demise of Tangirala Prabhakara Rao who was elected on a Telugu Desam Party (TDP) ticket in the recently held general elections. In this by-election, Prabhakara Rao's daughter Sowmya is contesting on a TDP ticket, while Bodapati Prabhakara Rao is constesting on a Congress ticket, besides two other independent candidates. However, the YSR Congress has stayed away from this by-election.

Political observers said that it would not be an easy task for the Congress to capture the Nandigama assembly constituency during the by-election though it is trying its best to do so. The Congress which was routed in Andhra Pradesh during the general elections in May this year, it is now focussed on Nandigama to enter the Andhra Pradesh assembly. Almost all senior Congress leaders have been campaigning in the constituency using all its resources, sources said.

Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president N Raghuveera Reddy and former APCC president B Satyanarayana already visited the consitituency twice each to convince voters to vote for the Congress candidate this time. They appealed to voters allow them into the AP assembly to fight for the cause of people against the TDP by focussing on the delay in waiving off agricultural and DWACRA loans.

APCC secretary Kolanukonda Shivaji said that the ruling TDP had violated the election code. He said that the Congress has succeeded in mobilising the people who are disappointed with TDP rule within a span of three months.

-PTI