Congress party won two MLA seats out of 18 seats in bypolls. And the political observers in the state are of the opinion that Congress won two seats only because of Chiranjeevi. Congress would have been no where without Chiranjeevi. Congress party will be washed out completely if Chiranjeevi is not there. Reason being so simple that Chiranjeevi has reserved kapu votes in the these two constituencies.
Now people might ask as to why Congress lost in Tirupati? Also if rumours are believed, Galla Aruna Kumari campaigned against Congress since her son was not given a ticket to contest from Tirupati. There are also other reasons why Congress didn't taste victory in Tirupati. People in Tirupati said they were angry with Congress party since they stolen their favourite leader Chiranjeevi from their constituency. They, nevertheless, said no one can steal mega star from their hearts. People have also said that they want Chiranjeevi back in state level politics.
“Chiranjeevi should be made the chief minister and when one asks AP chief minister belongs from which constituency, we want to proudly say that he's from our Tirupati constituency,” said one Kamalamma, who a loyalist of Chiranjeevi.
AndhraWishesh team also spoke to a fruit vendor Kantha Rao and this is what he said, “Why did they (Congress) took our leader from us? Give our leader back. We want our Chiranjeevi back in Tirupati.”
Twenty-seven-year old autodriver Dhanayyah who claimed he's been a fan of megastar ever since his childhood after watching megastar's movie Rikshavodu said: “I want Chiranjeevi to be the chief minister. He will do so much to downstrodden people (badugu balaheena vargaalu). Give our leader back to us.”
These are just examples and space wouldn't be enough to mention each and everyone's response. What onething everyone had in common was—tears in their eyes when they talk about Chiranjeevi.
Credit of two seats goes to Chiranjeevi:
Chiranjeevi being a kapu, all kapus (who are maximum in these two constituencies) voted for Chiranjeevi. The Congress should at least now realize it and make Chiranjeevi the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh since there's no perfect state leader in the state level Congress. Then only Congress will taste success in other parts of the state.
Talk to anyone in these two constituencies where Congress won, scores would say they would give their life for the real hero Chiranjeevi. The reports indicated that there are around 42,000 kapu voters in Narsapuram. Kothapalli Subbarayudu was welcomed by the people from Narsapuram and obviously the credit goes to Chiranjeevi. The same is the case with Ramchandrapuram. Here also people voted for Congress only looking at Chiranjeevi.
Will Congress consider the opinion of the public in the state is a million dollar question. One thing for sure is that Congress would go no where if it doesn't declare Chiranjeevi as the chief minister candidate.
(AW Phani)