AP Assembly: A mixed bag

Desaraju Surya
Hyderabad: The 13th Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly will be a mixed bag, more than half loaded with experience and the rest with freshness. There will be a dash of glamour with stars from the tinsel town Chiranjeevi and Jayasudha making it to the legislature for the first time. As many as 132 MLAs will be making their debut in the 294-member legislature and sharing the space with political heavyweights like Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and N Chandrababu Naidu. For N Jayaprakash Narayan the portals of the Legislative Assembly are not new. For, as an Indian Administrative Service officer for more than two decades Narayan walked in those portals many a time but now he will be stepping in in a new avatar – as an elected representative. JP, as is he is famously called, has been elected to the Assembly for the first time from the newly-created Kukatpally constituency in Greater Hyderabad. Chiranjeevi, who floated the Praja Rajyam Party after ending his 30-year-long film career, failed to realize his dream of capturing power but he won the Tirupati Assembly seat and lost in Palakollu. He will be making entry into the Assembly for the first time. Yesteryear heroine Jayasudha, who continues to don character roles in Telugu films, too emerged successful in her maiden electoral battle from Secunderabad. Prominent among the first-time MLAs are K T Rama Rao, son of TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, Kurasala Kannababu (PRP), a former journalist and Sheik Mastanvali (Congress), a former NSUI leader from Guntur. While the ruling Congress suffered a setback by losing many of its strongmen, the principal opposition TDP’s strength has improved with many of its heavyweights returning to the Assembly. Former Union minister S Venugopalachari, former state ministers Mandava Venkateswara Rao, Tummala Nageswara Rao, P Srinivas Reddy, B Gopalakrishna Reddy, P Ramulu, former MPs Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy and Ambati Brahmanaiah have made it to the Assembly once again this time.