Vizag South: No clarity Yet on contesting candidates

Visakhapatnam: In Visakhapatnam south constituency where core areas of the city fall under its purview, there is yet no clarity on the candidates to be contesting in the ensuing polls.

Even as sitting MLA Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar is likely to contest again in the constituency, no announcement was made towards this direction. Besides him, there is no other strong candidate to contest from the YSRCP as well.

However, a number of candidates are in the fray from TDP and JSP. After the delimitation exercise in 2008, Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao was elected as the first MLA from the Congress. For the next two consecutive terms, Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar from the TDP won the seat.

Later, he switched loyalties and joined the YSRCP. As the TDP candidate won twice in the constituency, there is a strong opinion that the constituency is TDP-pro. Part of RK Beach, the famous Jagadamba junction, King George Hospital that draws patients from Visakhapatnam and neighbouring States, Sri Kanaka Mahalakshmi Devasthanam, one of the largest Fishing Harbours, Mrs. AVN College, among others, form a part of the constituency.

However, one of the demerits of the constituency is the presence of slum areas in most of the GVMC wards. A large section of the fishermen community dominates the south constituency.

In 2009, Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar from TDP, Kola Guruvulu from Praja Rajyam Party and Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao from the Congress vied with one another. With the lowest majority of 341 votes, Dronam Raju Srinivasa Rao emerged victorious against Kola Guruvulu.

In 2014, the battle was between Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar from the TDP and Kola Guruvulu from the YSRCP. Vasupalli won the seat.

Currently, former MLA Gandi Babji is serving as TDP constituency in-charge. Mostly, he would be contesting as an MLA candidate from the TDP in the ensuing elections. From Jana Sena Party, GVMC’s 32nd ward corporator Kandula Nagaraju has been eyeing the constituency for long. Through ‘Pavananna Praja Bata’ padayatra that continued for over 100 days in the constituency, he gained a larger grip over the local issues and worked towards resolving most of them. Kandula Nagaraju also focused on reaching out to the local communities through a series of charity-oriented programmes.

Meanwhile, MLC Vamsi Krishna Srinivas Yadav, who left the YSRCP recently, joined the JSP. Although his first choice of constituency to contest from is Bheemunipatnam, Vamsi says that he is planning to contest from the south constituency in case he does not get a chance to contest from Bheemli.

Speaking to The Hans India, Gandi Babji and Vamsi Krishna Srinivas Yadav opine that development in the south constituency came to a standstill and it would resume once the TDP-JSP combine comes to power.