Sujana Chowdary to contest from Vijayawada West

Vijayawada: After a tug of war for many days between Jana Sena and BJP on Vijayawada West constituency, the BJP reportedly finalised the name of former MP Sujana Chowdary as candidate. He is expected to open party office in the constituency as part of preparations for the contest.

The state BJP will officially announce the name of former Union minister on Wednesday, according to reliable sources in BJP.

The party has already announced the names of candidates for six Lok Sabha constituencies. Now, it will announce the names of 10 candidates for Assembly seats. The BJP core committee was busy on Tuesday discussing the names to announce on Wednesday.

BJP never own the polls in Vijayawada West. Earlier, leaders from YSRCP, Congress and Left parties won here. Now, the YSRCP has fielded Shaik Asif, a first-time contestant. He is the former corporator of the VMC and chairman of the AP Minority Corporation.

Shaik Asif has launched the polls campaign and been visiting colonies in the day to day meeting the voters.

Muslims, Arya Vysyas, Nagaralu, Dalits and BC voters are in sizeable numbers here.

Jana Sena aspirant Pothina Venkata Mahesh worked nearly for five years in the constituency with a hope of contesting the polls from Jana Sena as an alliance candidate in 2024.

Now, he was disappointed with the decision taken by the BJP to field its candidate.

TDP leader and former MLC Buddha Venkanna too aspired the ticket from West and took out a rally to show his strength in the constituency.

Sujana Chowdary, whose real name is Yalamanchili Satyanarayana Chowdary, had spent most of his time in Hyderabad and Delhi for a long time. He is a native of NTR district and earlier served as the Union minister. He defected from TDP to BJP and is one of the important BJP leaders in Andhra Pradesh. Vijayawada West constituency is going to a contest between the first-time contestant and senior politician.

Interestingly, the BJP has to depend on the support of Jana Sena and TDP cadre to win the elections.

It is not known how Jana Sena supporters will co-operate Sujana Chowdary. Pothina Mahesh hails from Nagaralu caste, who are mainly in the West seat. Long time ago, Nagaralu caste leaders played very important role in Left parties and Congress in Vijayawada West constituency.

The mainstream political parties started fielding Arya Vysya candidate Velampalli Srinivas or Muslim candidates for nearly two decades in West constituency. Now, Mahesh has firmly decided to contest the elections and become MLA. But, the sudden entry of Sujana Chowdary has dashed his hopes. He is continuing his fight and asking the party leadership to consider his name to contest from West constituency.