Sibling rivalry to the fore in Pulivendula
For the past 46 years, the Yeduguru Sandinti, or YS family, has held sway over the Pulivendula Assembly constituency, and its grip has not loosened yet; the constituency continues to be considered synonymous with its rst family.
The opposing Telugu Desam Party, however, is hoping that this year’s Assembly election, to be held on May 13, will be di¦erent. Taking the ght right to the YS family’s doorstep, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu has coined the slogan, ‘Why not Pulivendula?’, which appears to have caught the attention of the electorate.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is seeking reelection from Pulivendula for the third time. However, he is not just pitched against the TDP’s Mareddy Ravindranath Reddy (also known as ‘B.Tech’ Ravi), but is also embroiled in a family war: his sister Y.S. Sharmila, who is contesting the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat as the Congress candidate, is taking every opportunity to hit her brother on all fronts and increase the anti-incumbency factor against him by e¦ectively marshalling the Congress’s MLA candidates.
The warring siblings’ father, the late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, known as YSR, won the Pulivendula Assembly seat three times, in 1978, 1983, and 1985. His brother Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy won the seat in 1989 and 1994.
YSR again won the seat in 1999, 2004, and 2009, keeping his grip on the constituency till his untimely death in a helicopter crash just six months after being sworn in for his second consecutive term as the Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2009. In the byelections held in 2010 and 2011, YSR’s wife, Y.S. Vijayamma, sailed through comfortably, rst on Congress ticket and then as the candidate of the newly ®oated YSR Congress Party. Continuing the family’s winning streak, their son Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, the current CM and the founder of the YSRCP, romped home in 2014 and 2019. He is contesting once again in their home turf in 2024, aiming at a ‘hat-trick’.
‘Shoo-in for elections’
For a long time, YSR had been a household name in Pulivendula, and a shoo-in for elections, with people becoming accustomed to knocking on his door for any kind of support.
YSR’s demise came as a shock not only for his family, but also for his constituents. It was then that Viveka stepped into his brother’s shoes to set things right, both on the political as well as family fronts. However, his brutal murder in 2019, nearly 10 years after YSR’s death, led to the undoing of all his efforts to keep the family together, further widening the rifts.
The TDP, which has failed to make signicant inroads into YSR’s citadel over the past four decades, believes it has the support of 30,000 votes intact. TDP candidate S.V. Satish Kumar Reddy contested against YSR in 2004 and 2009 and tasted defeat.
This time, Mr. Ravindranath Reddy is determined to breach what is being dubbed as the YSR family fort. Having been named as the TDP candidate more than a year ago, he has been actively campaigning in every nook and corner of the constituency.
To counter Mr. Ravi’s emergence as a strong contender, the CM has strategically brought his predecessor Satish Kumar Reddy into the YSRCP fold, in an apparent bid to loosen the TDP’s growing propsects.