Demand to change Congress candidate in Peddapalli

Party activists from the segment under the aegis of Madiga Shakti have even staged a protest in front of the AICC office in New Delhi, demanding the party high command to change the candidate, Gaddam Vamshi Krishna, son of Chennur MLA G Vivek.

Jagtial: Though the Congress candidate for Peddapalli parliament constituency has been announced, the seat remains a dilemma for the Congress party leadership with the demand to change the candidate growing by the day.

Party activists from the segment under the aegis of Madiga Shakti have even staged a protest in front of the AICC office in New Delhi, demanding the party high command to change the candidate, Gaddam Vamshi Krishna, son of Chennur MLA G Vivek.

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Local leaders from SC (Madiga) community are strongly opposing the candidature of Vamshi Krishna.

Party sources said it was based on an agreement for allocation of two MLA seats and an MP ticket that Vivek and his family members joined the Congress party before Assembly elections. Accordingly, the Chennur and Bellampalli assembly seats were allocated to Vivek and his brother Vinod while the Peddapalli Lok Sabha ticket was given to Vivek’s son Vamshi Krishna.

However, local leaders especially from the Madiga community are opposing the party decision. They are questioning the allocation of the ticket to someone who joined the party just three months ago, while denying a chance to local leaders who have been working for the party for decades.
They are also questioning the seat to a leader hailing from a community (SC Mala) which they say has less number of people than the Madiga community.

Madiga Shakti leaders, who had demanded a seat for leaders from their community before announcement of the ticket, said that except once, the Congress has always allocated the Peddapalli seat to Mala leaders. While Vivek’s father G Venkataswamy was allocated the ticket six times, Vivek contested on a Congress ticket twice earlier. It was only in 2019 that Madiga leader and former Minister Aagam Chandrashekhar was allocated a ticket.

Moreover, the Congress party won all seven assembly constituencies in Peddapalli Lok Sabha constituency limits in the recent assembly elections. Anticipating an easy victory in parliament polls, many leaders including Gomasa Srinivas, Utla Varaprasad, Gajjela Kantham, Perka Shyam and others had applied for the ticket.
With the announcement of the ticket to Vamshi Krishna, Gomasa Srinivas, hailing from Nethakani community, joined the BJP and is going to contest on behalf of the saffron party.

Madiga leaders including Youth Congress former national secretary Varaprasad, Gajjela Kantha and others are mounting pressure on the party to change the candidate.
While the followers of Varaprasad and Kantha staged a protest at Delhi on Thursday, Varaprasad has decided to observe a one day ‘deeksha’ in Peddapalli on April 5.