Nandigam Suresh, the new MP from Bapatla Lok Sabha constituency, holds a BPL card — a rare distinction in Indi... Read More

AMARAVATI: Contrary to public perception that democracy has become a whirligig of the rich, a few from the ranks of the everyman and woman from Andhra Pradesh are set to enter the portals of Parliament soon. A farmer, a circle inspector, a physical education teacher, and Group 1 bureaucrat are among the crop of 22 candidates, from the YSRC party, elected to the Lok Sabha in the just concluded general election.

Take the case of Nandigam Suresh . Suresh, the new MP from Bapatla Lok Sabha constituency, holds a BPL card — a rare distinction in Indian politics.

Suresh cultivates bananas in Uddandarayunipalem, a village in the Amaravati region. Suresh’s family owns two acres in the village where the joint family ekes out a livelihood. Suresh also used to work as a part-time photographer to support his family.

Following the death of YS Rajasekhara Reddy, then CM of Andhra Pradesh in 2009, Suresh became an ardent follower of his son, YS Jaganmohan Reddy , and became a youth-wing leader in the new party that Jaganmohan founded in 2011 — the YSR Congress party.

Suresh alleges that police tried to implicate him in an incident of arson where banana nurseries were set on fire in 2015, and tortured him to implicate YSRC president and current CM designate, Jaganmohan Reddy, in the case.

“Circle inspector C Koteswara Rao tried to extract a confession from me that I committed the crime at the behest of Jagan. I refused, as I neither committed the crime nor received instructions from Jagan,” Suresh said.

Jagan made Suresh in charge of the Bapatla Lok Sabha constituency last year. Suresh said he pleaded with Jagan to take him off the post, as he was not suitable for it with no knowledge of English or Hindi, and no money. Jagan not only retained him but made him a candidate from this constituency for the general election, Suresh says.

“Jagan anna asked me to meet people with folded hands and coordinate with assembly candidates. The rest is history,” said a jubilant Suresh, who defeated former I-T commissioner and sitting MP of TDP, Malyadri Sriram.

The story of Goddeti Madhavi, the new MP from Araku, is very similar. She is a physical education teacher on contract. Madhavi, 28, the daughter of former MLA, late G Demudu, is the one of youngest MPs in the country.

With a declared income of Rs.1.4 lakh in her affidavit to the ECI, Madhavi is one of the candidates with the lowest assets in the country. She defeated a six-time MP of the TDP and a former Union minister, Kishore Chandra Deo, by a margin of 2,24,098 votes.

Gorantla Madhav, a circle inspector who hails from a backward class community, Kuruba, quit the service just before the general election and won from the Hindupur constituency in Anantapur district, on a YSRC ticket.

Madhav shot to fame when he locked horns with JC Diwakar Reddy, TDP MP, over alleged breakdown of law and order in the region. Jagan immediately roped him into YSRC.

