NTR's daughter: Daggubati Purandeswari's USP

Desaraju Surya
Visakhapatnam: She may have made a mark as a first time MP and also a Union minister but the “NTR’s daughter” tag continues to be Daggubati Purandeswari’s USP. She is now fighting her second election from a different constituency, having won from Bapatla Lok Sabha segment in her maiden political venture. “Visakhapatnam is not new to me. I have good connections with the city as well as the people here,” Purandeswari says, recalling her days when she used to accompany her legendary father N T Rama Rao on film shoots to this beautiful port city. Purandeswari is pitted against former MP and senior TDP leader M V V S Murthy, who is vigorously using the “local” tag to promote his chances. Another “local” candidate is BJP’s D V Subba Rao, a former Mayor of Visakhapatnam. A cricket administrator and a former chairman of Bar Council of India, Subba Rao, however, suffered a hipbone fracture while campaigning last week and is now reduced to bed. “Though it is a multi-cornered contest, people of Vizag have shown a lot of warmth and affection that should make my victory easy,” Purandeswari has said. But a section of the Congress, led by former Union minister and a local heavyweight T Subbirami Reddy, is said to be working against Purandeswari, though not overtly. Subbirami Reddy, a Rajya Sabha member, himself wanted to contest the Lok Sabha election but the Congress high command rejected his plea. Asked about the efforts within the Congress to sabotage her prospects, Purandeswari simply remarked: “I don’t think of any such thing. Yes, there is the ‘rebel’ factor but very less as compared to other parties. The Congress leadership is talking to the so-called rebels and in the interest of the party they are working together.” Purandeswari is meeting practically every section of the electorate daily and also holding special meetings with trade unions, caste associations, traders and other communities. “The kind of response that I am getting from the people here makes me feel that I am blessed. My objective is to work here with all of them and come out successful,” she points out. Besides the “NTR’s daughter” USP, the Union minister is also banking on the programmes of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy government in the state. “A lot has been done in the last five years both on the development as well as welfare fronts. That should stand the Congress in good stead,” she noted. Wittingly or unwittingly, the NTR’s family has been dragged into political mud-slinging in this election more than at any other time. The Congress has been tactfully using Purandeswari and her MLA husband Daggubati Venkateswara Rao to take on the TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu in particular. “To me, my family is very important. My commitment to the Congress party is also important. I am completely against personal accusations but I can’t stand answerable to what somebody else is speaking,” Purandeswari maintains. It was only on one particular occasion, during the TDP’s Yuva Garjana rally last year which marked the political re-entry of her younger brother and film star Nandamuri Balakrishna, that “I reacted personally against a person (read Chandrababu) who did not care for my father or who did not even want his name to be carried forward,” she points out. “It was the only time where I brought out the personal sentiment. It was more out of pain that my own brothers should not be used or misused in whatever way,” she added. Corruption is one issue that the opposition parties have chosen to nail the Congress in this election. Asked about it, Purandeswari shotback: “I would like to ask those people pointing fingers to say if there was no corruption during their time.” This was her way of hitting out at Chandrababu Naidu, her younger sister’s husband.