Visakha urban MLAs to vie for a hat-trick

Visakhapatnam: An MLA from TDP and another from the YSRCP are looking forward to enter the poll battle with brimming enthusiasm to hit a hat-trick.

In Visakhapatnam city, four candidates from the TDP won in 2019 elections. Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu from Visakhapatnam East constituency, Ganta Srinivasa Rao from North constituency, P G V R Naidu (Ganababu) from West constituency and Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar from South constituency contested and all of them won.

Despite the ‘fan’ wave back then, the TDP could surge forward in these four constituencies in Visakhapatnam.

Much against the predictions, the election results proved that the TDP holds sway in city. However, after winning the polls, South constituency MLA Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar defected to YSRCP.

The rest of the MLAs in Visakhapatnam urban decided to continue in the TDP.

Both Ganababu and Ganesh Kumar won twice in a row and nurture a close association with respective constituency people.

In the ensuing polls, Ganababu from TDP and Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar from YSR Congress Party are set to contest again. And if they win in the 2024 polls, it would be a hat-trick for them. Blocking their hat-trick score would be a challenging task for the opponents.

Visakhapatnam East constituency MLA Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu won in 2009 against PRP candidate Chennuboina Srinivasa Rao (Vamsi Krishna Srinivas Yadav) with a majority of 4,031 votes.

In 2014, the same candidate contested on behalf of the YSRCP and lost by a margin of 47,883 votes. In 2019, Velagapudi scored a hat-trick by securing a majority of 26,474 votes contesting against YSRCP candidate Akkramani Vijaya Nirmala.

However, this time, he is going to compete against Visakhapatnam MP M V V Satyanarayana. When he proposed to contest as an MLA from the East constituency, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy gave a green signal to it and appointed him as a coordinator of the constituency. Following which, the MP embarked on a ‘padayatra’ to get closer to constituency people.

When it comes to Visakhapatnam West constituency, Congress candidate Malla Vijay Prasad won in the 2009 elections with a majority of 5,502 votes over TDP candidate Ganababu.

In the following polls, Ganababu won with a majority of 30,857 votes over the YSRCP candidate Dadi Ratnakar.

In 2019, YSRCP candidate Malla Vijay Prasad won with a majority of 18,981 votes. In the forthcoming polls, YSRCP candidate Adari Anand Kumar is likely to contest from the West constituency. For quite a long time, Anand Kumar has been proactive in carrying out various activities in the constituency. Through his app ‘Meetho Anand’, exclusively designed to reach out to the people of the West constituency, Anand Kumar responds to the constituency people, visiting wards, taking stock of their issues and keeping in touch with them at frequent intervals.

So far, Ganababu has served three times as MLA in this constituency and is now preparing to give a tough challenge to Adari Anand Kumar.

As far as Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar from South constituency is concerned, doubts over his winning chances are raising. Many corporators of the ruling party held meetings against Vasupalli's candidature in the constituency. And it is one of the main reasons why a number of corporators have already resigned from the party and made it clear that they will not allow Vasupalli to win again. Opposing them, the MLA’s supporters exude confidence that Vasupalli would emerge victorious in the 2024 polls as well.