TDP, Jana Sena at loggerheads in West constituency

Vijayawada: TDP and Jana Sena are facing a difficult task to decide which party has to contest from Vijayawada West Assembly constituency. The TDP leader and former MLC Buddha Venkanna claimed that he should be given a ticket to contest the ensuing assembly elections. On the other hand, the alliance party Jana Sena leader and in-charge of West constituency Potina Mahesh wishes to contest the polls from the west segment. Potina Mahesh belongs to Nagaralu community, which has a sizable number of voters. In the West constituency, Muslims, Vysyas, Nagaralu, Kapu and SC voters are in sizable numbers. Both Buddha Venkanna and Potina Mahesh are at loggerheads and no one wants to compromise.

Potina Mahesh contested in 2019 and was defeated. YSRCP candidate Velampalli Srinivas won the contest and held the portfolio of endowments minister for more than two years. The TDP candidate stood in second place in the 2019 elections in the West segment.

Nagaralu leaders are disappointed that no leader from their community was elected as MLA over two decades. Earlier, some Nagaralu leaders were elected from Congress and the Left parties. Nagaralu community voters feel they were neglected by the political parties.TDP and Jana Sena have discussed the seat sharing several occasions. But the West segment issue has not been resolved yet. Of the three assembly segments in Vijayawada city, Jana Sena is insisting on contesting from the West segment only because Potina Mahesh has been actively conducting the party programmes and criticises the YSRCP government policies and failures.

The YSRCP has announced the name of Shaik Asif as the candidate for the West segment. He is the minority corporation chairman and has been in YSRCP for many years.

Discussions are taking place in the YSRCP that Shaik Asif will be replaced by some other candidate. So far, the YSRCP has announced the in-charges and not mentioned that the B forms to be given to the leaders. There is a possibility of changing the in-charges. For which ground work has started. Based on the feedback, the party will decide to continue the same candidate or change of name. Speculations are in party circles that the YSRCP is considering the name of another leader. But so far no official announcement has been made in this regard.