ANDHRA PRADESH

to come back to power in the state’s second assembly election. But people in the more interior, rural regions of the constituency say Gajwel’s development has limited itself to the urban and that agricultural distress in particular is a problem.

“The actual problems still remain – unemployment, farmers’ suicides due to crop loss and above all, the plight of people who are going to be displaced due to construction of Mallannasagar and Konda Pochamma reservoir,” says Lakshma Reddy, a young man. The government says it has paid ~ 6 lakh per acre as compensation and is planning to shift them to Mutrajpalli near Gajwel. “But the market value of the land in Mutrajpalli is more than ~ 1.5 crore per acre. How do we survive?” asked Kanakaiah.

Another complaint some people have is that KCR has grown less accessible. Some locals said that KCR has not even campaigned in the constituency and his nephew, irrigation minister T Harish Rao, has been entrusted with the task of campaigning in Gajwel. “There is no need for KCR to campaign for himself. The development is there for all to experience and people will vote for him with majority,” said Harish. In 2014, KCR defeated the Telugu Desam Party candidate Vanteru Pratap Reddy a margin of 19,366 votes while Congress candidate T Narsa Reddy ended up in the third position. Gajwel has 227,000 voters.