Avanigadda to witness rematch of Mandali Vs Simhadri

Vijayawada: Veteran politician and three-time MLA Mandali Buddha Prasad will contest from the Avanigadda Assembly constituency in the elections to be held on May 13 as Jana Sena Party candidate. He quit the TDP and joined Jana Sena on April 1. He earlier contested on behalf of TDP in 2014 and 2019 and now contesting from Jana Sena as an alliance candidate.

Interestingly, this will be a rematch between the rivals of 2019 elections, though Buddha Prasad is fighting on behalf of different party. YSRCP retained its sitting MLA Simhadi Ramesh Babu as its candidate, who has already launched election campaign in the constituency.

In 2019, Buddha Prasad contested as TDP candidate and now he is the alliance candidate.

Avanigadda in Diviseema region of Krishna district is the bastion for Kapu voters and Kapu leaders for many decades. Now, once again two prominent Kapu leaders are in the fray for the 2024 Assembly elections.

Buddha Prasad was elected from Avanigadda in 1999 and 2004, served as a minister in the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy Cabinet in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. He also served as the chairman of the AP Official Language Commission and was the Deputy Speaker of Assembly from 2014 to 2019.

He quit the Congress in protest against the division of the state in 2014 and joined the TDP.

Mandali Buddha Prasad lost the Assembly elections three times in 1994, 2009 and 2019. His political career spanned over three decades and is one of the well-known leaders in Andhra Pradesh.

His father Mandali Venkata Krishna Rao was elected three times to the Assembly in 1972, 1978 and 1983.

Mandali surname is associated with politics of Diviseema region since early 1970s. Both father and son served six times as MLAs for the Diviseema region.

Avanigadda was one of the seats allotted to JSP under the seat-sharing agreement among TDP, BJP and Jana Sena.

Earlier, the TDP leaders demanded that Buddha Prasad be chosen to contest from TDP in Avanigadda and some TDP leaders also resigned from the party. But, the TDP leadership did not concede to the demand. Finally, Buddha Prasad quit the TDP and joined Jana Sena. In the last elections, YSRCP’s Simhadri Ramesh Babu secured 78,447 votes as against Buddha Prasad’s 57,772 votes.