It is a known fact that Palandu region of Guntur district had been ridden with factional feuds for quite a long time.
As in the case of Rayalaseema region, factionism in Palandu is mostly confined to a few sections fighting for dominance in the area and politics is only a cover up for them to get out of the cases.
Hitherto, whether it was the Congress regime or the TDP regime, the elected representatives were associated with one faction or the other fighting for one-upmanship in the region.
The ruling party leaders used to get away with the police support, while those associated with opposition parties used to suffer.
During the TDP regime, two leaders ruled the roost in Palnadu region: one, former Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao from Sattenapalli and Yarapathineni Srinivasa Rao from Gurajala.
There were allegations that Kodela and his family members gained control over Narsaraopet, Sattenapalli and adjoining areas, Yarapathineni reigned terror in Gurajala, Macherla and Rentachintala areas.
Particularly in Gurajala region, where Yarapathineni was allegedly involved in illegal limestone mining activities, more factional incidents were witnessed. Among the opposition, only Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy family was known be involved in factional feuds.
However, in the present YSRC regime, almost all the ruling party MLAs have no factional background, except Pinneli.
For instance, Kasu Mahesh Reddy, coming from the family of former chief minister Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, keeps himself away even from petty quarrels in his constituency Gurajala, known for factional violence, and does not entertain even YSRC leaders involved in any violent incidents.
So is the case with Gopireddy Srinivas Reddy from Narsaraopet. Though he has political rivalry with Kodela family having faction background, there is not a single case of any factional feuds against him.
Similarly, Sattenapalli MLA Ambati Rambabu, who defeated Kodela in the recent elections, is a loud-mouth politician, but has no factional background. He doesn’t maintain any groups nor does he have any record of indulging in land grabbing or extortions.
Only Macherla MLA Pinnelli Ramakrishna hails from a family involved in factionism, but he personally had never indulged in any factional violence. In fact, his followers suffered a lot during the TDP regime.
So, one is surprised when TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu started shouting from roof tops over increased violence in Palnadu region, as none of the MLAs of YSRC from the region have any such violent record.
As a matter of fact, if at all there are any people who faced violent attacks in Palnadu, they were the victims of former TDP MLAs Kodela and Yarapathineni.
Apparently, Naidu is making a hue and cry only to protect these two leaders whose atrocities are now coming out in the open!
