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Venkatagiri to witness tough fight between TDP, YSRCP
Nellore: Former Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy is contesting on YSRCP ticket in Venkatagiri Assembly constituency and is going to give a tough fight...
Nellore: Former Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy is contesting on YSRCP ticket in Venkatagiri Assembly constituency and is going to give a tough fight to TDP nominee and sitting MLA K Ramakrishna who had won the polls in 2009 and 2014.
TDP bagged the seat for four times and Congress won 8 times since 1955 polls. It was strong base for Congress party earlier and gradually the voters started giving priority to TDP. For the first time, TDP candidate Raja V Bhaskara Saikrishna Yachendra got victory in 1985.
Venkatagiri Rajahs joined TDP attracted by ideologies of former Chief Minister and founder of TDP NT Rama Rao and later they kept away from politics. Bhaskara Krishna Yachendra contested in 1985, Raja VVRK Yachendra in 1994 from TDP and won the polls. Bhaskara Krishna Yachendra again contested in 2004 on TDP and was defeated where Nedurumalli Rajyalakshmi, wife of former Chief Minister N Janardhan Reddy, won from Congress.
Recently, Rajahs joined the opposition in the presence of party candidate. Venkatagiri is popular place for stalwarts like N Srinivasulu Reddy, N Chandrasekhara Reddy, Venkatagiri Rajahs and N Janardhan Reddy. Janardhan Reddy had contested from here in 1989 and became Chief Minister. Congress was strong in the region till 1983.
The constituency is famous for hand-loom cotton products and Venkatagiri sarees are having special recognition for their craft and quality and these products achieved GI tag in 2011. Still, local weaving community has been facing hardships due to lack of support from the Governments.
Erstwhile Rapur constituency vanished due to reorganisation and the areas merged into Venkatagiri constituency.
YSRCP candidate Ramanarayana Reddy, though he is new to the local polls, had earlier won from the Rapur constituency during 1985, 1999 and 2004 polls representing TDP. He served as Minister too. Now, he is having contacts from the region which is advantage to him. There are 2, 45,144 votes in the constituency in which 1, 42,674 are men.
Sitting MLA from the ruling party Kurugondla Ramakrishna is strong in the area. He had won in 2009 against N Rajyalakshmi of Congress. He also won in 2014 against Kommi Lakshmaiah Naidu of YSRCP where Lakshmaiah got 78,034 votes. There was a majority of 5,635 votes to Ramakrishna.
