In his bid to defeat archrival N Chandrababu Naidu in his own bastion, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSRCP supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy wooed the voters with a promise to induct party candidate from the Kuppam Assembly constituency in Chittoor KRJ Bharath in the state Cabinet if he wins the polls.

While Naidu is a seven-time MLA from Kuppam, Reddy, who has been nurturing the constituency since 2019 when he was elected from the constituency, is looking forward to making the shrewd politician bite the dust this time around.

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Even today, the chief minister was in Kuppam to fulfil the long-standing demand of providing water for drinking and irrigation and inaugurated the Kuppam Branch Canal, releasing water from river Krishna to the four lakh people of Kuppam and Palamaneru constituencies. The newly-constructed canal constructed at the cost of Rs 560.29 crore will supply water for irrigation to 6300 acres of ayacut through 110 minor irrigation tanks in Kuppam while providing drinking water to 4.02 lakh people in both constituencies.

Reddy, later, addressed a public rally at Gundisettipalle where he took potshots at the former chief minister. “For 35 years Chandrababu Naidu represented Kuppam and held the chief minister’s office for 14 years. Shockingly, all this time, he couldn’t complete the Kuppam Branch Canal,” thundered the chief minister and alleged, “Instead, he (Naidu) exploited it as a fundraiser by manipulating estimates and awarding the contracts to his cronies.”

He claimed that his government had allocated Rs 66 crore for various developmental projects in the Kuppam municipality. While Naidu as chief minister had allocated only Rs 200 crore in Kuppam to pay pension of Rs 1,000 to just 31,000 beneficiaries, the YSRCP Government had increased the pension amount to Rs 3,100 and extended it to 45,374 beneficiaries, spending about Rs 507 only on pensions in the constituency.

TDP President and Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu shifted to the Kuppam constituency in 1989 after losing the Assembly elections from Chandragiri. Since then, he maintained his grip on the constituency, winning it for the seventh times in a row though the victory margin was reduced to only 30,000 votes in 2019 while TDP performed miserably winning only 23 seats.

The incumbent chief minister since then turned his attention to Kuppam, visiting it on several occasions and announcing developmental projects. He reaped the benefits when the YSRCP won the local polls in Kuppam. Naidu’s visit to the constituency, of late, has been marred by clashes between the supporters of two political parties amidst allegation that police did not allow him to hold rallies.