It is an open fact that Pulivendula assembly constituency in YSR district has been the bastion of the YSR Congress party right from the beginning and party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has been an undaunted leader in the constituency.
Yet, the TDP had been able to survive in Pulivendula at least to fight the elections because of Singireddy Venkata Satish Kumar Reddy, who had been the backbone of the party.
A long-time political rival of Y S Rajasekhar Reddy's family, Satish Reddy played a key role in strengthening TDP by challenging the supremacy YSR family in Pulivendula constituency for the las two decades.
He contested against Rajasekhar Reddy and his son and Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy two times each in the past as TDP nominee.
Realising his services to the TDP in Pulivendula, TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu made Satish Reddy as an MLC and appointed him as the deputy chairman of the state legislative council between 2014 and 2019.
However, troubles began for Satish Reddy after Jagan came to power in 2019, as he started facing the witch-hunt from the YSRC in Pulivendula. Unable to withstand the pressure, Satish quit the TDP ahead of local body elections in 2020.
He told reporters that he was displeased with party high command due to various reasons, including losing the confidence of party chief N Chandrababu Naidu despite striving hard for strengthening the party in the district.
“I cannot continue in the TDP as there is no value for hard working leaders,” he said.
Though there was a talk that he would join the YSRC later, it did not happen for various reasons. Since then, Satish Reddy has been silent in politics. After he quit the TDP, Naidu was forced to encourage M Ravindranath Reddy alias B Tech Ravi in Pulivendula.
A few days ago, Naidu announced B Tech Ravi as the party in-charge in Pulivendula, indicating that he would contest the next elections. And Ravi has been pro-active in the party activities in Pulivendula.
Against this backdrop, some TDP leaders from the area reportedly met Satish Reddy and requesting him to come back into active politics of the TDP. They complained that B Tech Ravi was troubling them and he had no stature to fight the elections in Pulivendula.
However, Satish Reddy reportedly told them that he had to come out of the TDP only because Naidu and Lokesh had suspected his loyalty, though he had served the party for 30 years. He said he, however, had not given any troubles to the TDP cadre.
He told them that he was willing to come back to the TDP, provided he is made party in-charge of Pulivendula again. They assured him that they would take up the matter with Naidu.
Obviously, this has angered B Tech Ravi, who wondered how the local TDP leaders could hold talks with Satish Reddy who had already left the party long ago. Ravi’s camp is now planning to meet the party high command to lodge a complaint against the rebel leaders.
The confrontation is expected to damage the party prospects further in Pulivendula in particular and Kadapa in general.
