Pedana: Kapu, Gowda voters play decisive role

Vijayawada: Kapu and Gowda voters play a decisive role in Pedana Assembly constituency of Krishna district. Housing Minister Jogi Ramesh, who belongs to Gowda community was elected twice from Pedana in 2009 and 2019. Earlier in 2014, TDP leader Kagita Venkata Rao won the election.

There are total 1,65,770 voters in Pedana. Of them over 40,000 are Kapu voters followed by Gowdas, weavers, Yadavas, Muslims and Dalits.

Now, there is a competition between the TDP and Jana Sena to contest from the Pedana constituency. Jana Sena leadership is also strongly insisting that three constituencies in erstwhile Krishna district should be allotted to Jana Sena. The three are Pedana, Avanigadda and Vijayawada West. As part of the political alliance, the two parties must share the 16 seats in erstwhile Krishna district.

TDP leader Buragadda Vedavyas recently met Pawan Kalyan and has been planning to join the Jana Sena party. He belongs to Kapu caste and is hopeful of emerging victorious in the Assembly election.

The YSRCP has announced the name of Uppala Ramesh alias Uppala Ramu as the in-charge of the Pedana constituency. His wife Uppala Harika is the Zilla Parishad chairperson.

The third name among the aspirants in Pedana is Kagita Krishna Prasad. He is the son of Kagita Venkata Rao a senior politician and four-time MLA. Kagita Krishna Prasad is the present TDP in-charge of the Pedana constituency and is one of the aspiring candidates.

The Pedana constituency has four mandals – Pedana, Bantumilli, Kruthivennu and Gudur and is spread over both urban and rural areas. Previously some part of the constituency was in Malleswaram Assembly constituency, which was subsequently abolished by the Election Commission.

So far only Kapu or Gowda candidates had won from this constituency. Now that Jogi Ramesh has left Pedana, it remains to be seen who will be the candidates contesting from the ruling party and opposition. The political parties are expected to take a decision on the contesting candidates later this week.