Nephew, uncle come face to face in Kovur Bypoll

NELLORE: Kovur constituency is witnessing a lot of political activity ever since the Election Commission announced the byelection schedule. The constituency is again going to polls on March 18 as TDP MLA Nallapureddy Prasanna Kumar Reddy resigned from the party and joined YSR Congress recently.TDP’s Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy will be facing Prasanna in the bypoll.Chandramohan Reddy is Prasanna’s maternal uncle.Meanwhile, the ruling Congress cleared the candidature of ex-MLA Polamreddy Srinivasulu Reddy.Former Venkatagiri MLA Nedurumalli Rajyalakshmi, wife of former chief minister N Janardhan Reddy, was said to have expressed reluctance to face the byelection.It is learnt that Srinivasulu Reddy too was not interested earlier as he was not confident of his poll prospects in view of group politics within the Congress in the district.However, the Congress finally prevailed upon Srinivuasulu Reddy.Meanwhile, Prasanna Kumar Reddy and Chandramohan Reddy have started poll campaign and meeting important leaders in the constituency almost two months ago.As the Kovur seat is prestigious for both YSRC and TDP, the respective candidates are campaigning vigorously.“We have spent a lot of money for campaigning even before the announcement of the election schedule,” a close aide of Chandramohan Reddy said.The election fever gripped the segment.Prasanna Kumar Reddy, who won the Kovur seat in 1993, 1994, 1999 and 2009 elections, is confident of his victory this time too.On the other hand, Chandramohan appears to be forced into the fray.Interestingly, Prasanna Kumar Reddy, who contested the 1993 Kovur bypolls following the death of his father N Srinivasulu Reddy, won the election with the blessings of Chandramohan Reddy.