With the completion of election process in Telangana, all the political parties have shifted their focus to Seemandhra where 25 lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats will go to polls in the next phase on May 7.
The main fight in this region, which will become the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh following the formal division of the State on June 2, is between the YSR Congress Party and the TDP-BJP alliance with both the sides having intensified their campaign.
At the same time the Congress, though badly weakened and marginalized, is also trying to energise remnants of its cadre by bringing in its star campaigners Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi.
TDP-BJP alliance campaign is expected to get a shot in the arm with BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi will be arriving in the region on Thursday evening to address a rally.
Modi is scheduled to arrive in temple town of Tirupati on Thursday. On Thursday, after offering prayers at the famous Shri Venkateshwara temple in Tirumala and Srikalahasti temple, Modi will address five rallies during the course of the day.
Accompanied by the popular film star, Pavan Kalyan, he will address rallies at Madanapalle, Nellore, Guntur, Bhimavaram and Visakhapatanam. At Bhimavaram rally, former Union Minister and senior Congress leader Kavuri Sambasiva Rao will join the BJP in the presence of Narendra Modi. The TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu will also address some of these rallies.
Sonia Gandhi, on the other hand, is scheduled to address a rally at Guntur on Friday while Rahul Gandhi will also undertake election tour of the region.
Congress leaders were quiet edgy on response to the rallies of Sonia and Rahul as the party was facing an unprecedented anger over its decision to divide Andhra Pradesh. Both the TDP and the
YSR Congress Party are trying to corner the Congress on the issue of Telangana. YSR Congress president YS Jaganmohan Reddy, who has emerged the front runner in the fight with the TDP-BJP alliance, has blamed the Congress as well the TDP-BJP for the division of the State and sought the support of the people to protect the interest of the Seemandhra region.
Naidu, who addressed election meetings in Anantapur district warned the people against trusting Jaganmohan Reddy. “After the elections, Jagan will support Congress party at the Centre. Voting Jagan is like voting Sonia Gandhi,” he told a meeting in Anantapur.
Apart from these major players, former Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s Jai Samakiya Andhra Party is also in the fray. By fielding candidates in most of the constituencies, the party is playing spoil sport and making any prediction of outcome difficult for the observers.