Visakhapatnam: Mutli-cornered contest for the prestigious seat

Visakhapatnam : A tough fight is expected among the MP candidates contesting from Visakhapatnam which is considered as a prestigious parliament constituency in Andhra Pradesh.

Compared to earlier elections, more number of MP candidates are likely to vie with one another this time. As a result, there is a larger scope for splitting of votes and higher chance for the candidate to win with a lowest majority of votes.

In 2019, the fight was among three candidates, including M Sri Bharat from the Telugu Desam Party, VV Lakhmi Narayana from Jana Sena Party and MVV Satyanarayana from YSRCP. Along with them, Daggubati Purandeswari from BJP and Pedada Ramani Kumari from Congress also contested but they did not make much of an impact in the last elections.

As there were many candidates from different parties vying for the MP seat, MVV Satyanarayana could scrape through the battle with a majority of 4.414 votes. While Sri Bharat secured the second spot in the elections, Lakshmi Narayna stood in the third place.

However, this time, the poll battle is going to be even tougher. According to the party leaders, Sri Bharat has a bigger chance to contest as an MP candidate from TDP in Visakhapatnam.

On Thursday, YSRCP announced Botcha Jhansi Lakshmi, spouse of Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana, as its party candidate. The party appointed her as the in-charge of the Lok Sabha constituency.

Earlier, Jhansi Lakshmi from Vizianagaram district served twice as Chairperson of District Zilla Parishad. She was elected as MP from Vizianagaram Lok Sabha constituency on the Congress ticket in 2009.

In the 2014, she contested again from Vizianagaram Lok Sabha constituency on behalf of the Congress party but lost the election. Later, her husband Botcha Satyanarayana joined the YSRCP. Following which, she did not get a chance to contest in the 2019 elections.

Even as she was willing to contest as MP from Vizianagaram in the ensuring polls, the party high command, however, allotted her Visakhapatnam seat.

But, the MP candidate has not been politically active for the past four-and-a-half years nor did she participate in any party programme in Visakhapatnam. In this backdrop, how effective her fight against the opponents will be needs to be seen.

Along with Sri Bharat and Botcha Jhansi Lakshmi, GVL Narasimha Rao from BJP, KA Paul from Praja Shanti Party and VV Lakshmi Narayana from the newly-formed Jai Bharat National Party are set to wield the sword in the poll battle.

VV Lakshmi Narayana, who contested from the JSP earlier, garnered 2.89 lakh votes. Despite coming out of the JSP, he has a grip over the constituency and knows the pulse of the people.

For the past several months, GVL Narasimha Rao has been striving hard to resolve local issues. Working as an effective coordinator between the local communities and concerned ministers at the Centre, GVL has taken up a bunch of issues to the notice of the Centre. For long, he has been expecting to get an MP seat from Visakhapatnam.

Meanwhile, KA Paul has already announced that he would be contesting as an MP from Visakhapatnam. With a major presence of Christian voters in Visakhapatnam, there is a big scope for him to split the community votes in the ensuing polls.

Along with the mainstream contestants, other Independent candidates will also join the fight. With many contestants in the fray, the question of who would emerge victorious needs to be seen.