Bonda, Malladi lock horns over Vijayawada Central

Vijayawada: Vijayawada Central Assembly constituency promises to be an interesting battle field. Two important leaders, Bonda Uma Maheswara Rao of TDP and Malladi Vishnu of YSRCP are locking horns from here.

Bonda Uma had won the election in 2014 with comfortable majority of over 27,000 votes against the nearest rival P Gowtham Reddy of YSRCP. This time Uma will be facing a fight from Vishnu, who is a popular leader and the contest is going to be multi-cornered as Chigurupati Babu Rao, an alliance candidate of CPM, CPI and Jana Sena is also in the fray.

YSRCP candidate Malladi Vishnu's name was confirmed many months ago and he began his campaign visiting every nook and corner of the constituency. Vishnu is also banking on the Brahmin votes, which are in sizeable number in this constituency. Vishnu had lost the last elections when contested as a Congress candidate in 2014 in the aftermath of bifurcation.

Sitting MLA Bonda Uma is also a strong contender. He got 82,669 votes against his nearest rival P Gowtham Reddy who was polled 55,508 votes in 2014 elections. Bonda Uma has been facing allegations grabbing of land which belongs to a freedom fighter's family.

His opponents allege that he could not succeed in expediting works like construction of flyover near Madhura Nagar Railway station, clearing lakhs of tonnes of garbage from Ajit Singh Nagar dumping yard and completion of Gunadala flyover bridge on three canals.

Scores of colonies including New RR Pet, Ajit Singh Nagar, Kandrika, Andhra Prabha Colony, Nandamuri Nagar and Kandrika have no basic facilities like roads, UGD, community halls, parks etc, they say.

Another candidate in the fray is Chigurupati Babu Rao, alliance candidate of CPM, CPI and Jana Sena. He enjoys good support in New RR Pet, Ajit Singh Nagar, Kandrika, Vambay colony, Nandamuri Nagar and other areas. Babu Rao has been campaigning intensively in the segment meeting the voters.