Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Another Gandhi family loyalist tries his luck from Nellore

New Delhi: As KL Sharma takes on Union minister Smriti Irani in Amethi, another Gandhi family loyalist is preparing to battle it out for a place in parliament from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. K Raju, the bureaucrat turned politician who is now the chief of the Congress Schedule Caste, Schedule Tribe, OBC and Minority department is fighting his maiden election from the seat in Rayalseema, a traditional Congress bastion that is now a YSRCP stronghold.

Raju’s association with Nellore goes back decades when the former IAS officer was the collector of the district. "People here still call me collector Raju," says the Congress candidate.

As a district collector, Raju ran night schools for marginalised communities to oversee the implementation of the literacy mission. The rising awareness among women triggered an anti-liquor movement in the district.

Raju later moved to the Center and as the additional secretary in the government worked closely with Sonia Gandhi and led the National Advisory Council to play a crucial role in drafting rights-based laws like MGNREGA. After taking pre-mature retirement he joined Congress.

But politics is an entirely different ball game from administering a district.

The battle for Nellore is being seen as a prestige contest in the greater Rayalseema region for both YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSRCP and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP. Local strongman V Prabhakar Reddy who along with his wife quit the YSRCP to join TDP came as a huge jolt to Jagan.

While Reddy is trying his luck for the Nellore LS seat, his wife is contesting for the state Assembly. In 2019, YSRCP won all 10 Assembly segments in the district.

To challenge Prabhakar Reddy, YSRCP has fielded Vijay Sai Reddy, the party leader in Rajya Sabha and a very close aide of the chief minister.

Though Raju belongs to a Dalit community, he is trying his luck from Nellore, a general seat.

"My opponents from YSRCP and TDP are very politically and financially influential.  I have not come here with money bags, I have come with a good track record of service," Raju says.

Congress has been trying to revive its fortunes in the state by nominating Jagan’s sister and former CM Rajasekhar Reddy's daughter YS Sharmila as state president. But it is an uphill task considering the YSRCP has already weaned away the traditional Congress vote base among Dalits, tribals, minorities, and Reddy. The party has blamed Congress for the division of Andhra Pradesh which was opposed by the non-Telangana regions of the undivided Andhra.   

Raju says "people of AP have realised this because it is only the Congress which put in heart and soul in preparing the reorganisation bill to provide a pathway for the development and welfare of AP".

But he rules out any reconciliation with Jagan.

"Jagan claims YSR legacy but whether people continue to see him as his political heir is an issue now. He is not demonstrating the same level of commitment to all sections of the people,” Raju claims.