Kakinada is a small town to Visakhapatnam or Vijayawada, which yet gives enough reasons to be proud of, rich in cultural resources and variety, and its blend of beauty. The ballot of an election allows the community to test what is in the minds of the state’s citizens. During the current period, people of Y.S. Sharmila’s cutouts and posters standing at the unexpected place came in Andhra Pradesh, the Congress party’s state president.
Several loyalists in Kakinada still harbour hopes that as she is the daughter of the late Y.S.R. Reddy, being a strong inheritor of his Legacy and aping the pattern of a resurgence in neighbouring Telangana will be the magic wand they were looking for. Herivators are convinced that her leadership can revive the Congress image that once was a dominant political party.
But not everyone is too enthusiastic about this hope. Naren Reddy, who stands here as a bona fide journalist and is also running an NGO to empower local fishermen, thinks this idea is funny. In his own opinion, there is nothing wrong with fanciful ideas. Yet, that is just fiction; the truth is that at the moment, the Indian National Congress in Andhra Pradesh is on the path to extinction, and there is no way to recover from it.
Anti-Congress sentiment is due to the perception that the party hoodwinked the people while the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh happened, especially the way Telangana was written off without any second thought. This bitter feeling is not hidden for the people who jubilated when Hyderabad state was annihilated and the promises of a separate package were not fulfilled.
The Congress was the most influential political party in the state but gradually declined and did not enjoy its power anymore. The future looks bleak both for Sharmila and for the Congress, the victorious party in the last General election, in the face of left swing, the birth of regional parties, and voter disappointment.
