Ex-minister Ganta reluctant to contest from Cheepurupalli

Cheepurupalli (Vizianagaram district) : Senior TDP leader and Visakhapatnam North MLA Ganta Srinivas is facing hardships this time and struggling to find a suitable constituency to contest for the ensuing Assembly elections.

Ganta has been switching over to a new constituency for every assembly election. He won as MLA from Chodavaram in Visakhapatnam district in 2004. Later in 2009 he moved to Praja Rajyam Party and won as MLA from Anakapalli.

In 2014, he shifted to the TDP and won as an MLA from Bheemli. Subsequently in 2019, he has registered victory from Visakhapatnam North Assembly constituency. But now he is facing hurdles to get the TDP MLA ticket for Bheemli or any other constituency.

But according to sources, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu has instructed Ganta to contest from Cheepurupalli against senior YSRCP leader and minister Botcha Satyanarayana.

Its learnt that Ganta is not interested to migrate to another district and contest in Cheepurupalli, which is stronghold of Botcha Satyanarayana. Botcha has wide contacts with the leaders of all parties in Cheepurupalli, Gurla, Garividia and Merakamudidam mandals and he has been attending every function.

Though Ganta is from the same Kapu community, he is not much confident over his performance in Cheepurupalli and he is not sure of the support getting from the TDP cadre there. Moreover the local TDP activists are not interested in extending support to a leader migrating from other district. This could help YSRCP candidate Botcha Satyanarayana.

On the other side, K Nagarjuna, TDP in-charge for Cheepurupalli, is also upset over speculations that Ganta would be fielded from the constituency. He has remained silent for a few days.

Later, senior leaders of TDP spoke to Nagarjuna, pacified him and brought him back into party activities. Anyhow, after observing the ground level conditions, Ganta seems to have decided not to move to Cheepurupalli. So finally Nagarjuna might be the candidate of TDP to fight against Botcha Satyanarayana.