This travel tycoon checking his ticket

• Keen contest on the cards for Vijayawada LS
• Kesineni locked in a tough fight
• Banks on his 18-month hard work
• Promises to get capital around Vijayawada

Vijayawada: The city-based travel tycoon Kesineni Srinivas is testing the validity of his ticket for the Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituency. Having secured the party ticket in a closely-but toughly fought battle with nail-biting tension, Kesineni is now sweating it out to prove his strength and test his luck.

Coming from the anti-Congress political family with his grandfather Kesineni Venkaiah being an active member of the Krushikar Lok Party and later Swatantra Party, Srinivas, who is popularly known as Kesineni Nani claims that politics is a different ball game. A successful businessman heading the Kesineni Travels, the leading player in the private travels, Nani now tries his hand in politics. “In business I am the master and the success or failure purely depended on my decisions. But in politics, it is different and the voter is my master,” he explains.

When the Vijayawada Lok Sabha seat turned hot with several top heads staking claims, Kesineni had the last laugh with Chandrababu Naidu issuing the B form. In the 48-hour long battle for B form Kesineni emerged victorious with several phone calls from the four rural Assembly segments – Tiruvur, Jaggaiahpet, Nandigama and Mylavaram – mounting pressure on Chandrababu Naidu in favour of Kesineni. “I was waiting in NTR Trust Bhavan for the party ticket. I did less work to convince the leadership, but the leaders from all these Assembly segments used their mobiles to convince Chandrababu Naidu on my candidature,” he revealed with a smile on his face. This was possible, according to him, because he knows 15 to 20 persons in every village in the entire Lok Sabha constituency.

Back home, the TD leaders supported Kesineni in the eleventh hour just for one reason – he had been working for the party and had toured extensively for more than one and a half years. “The party had imposed business tycoons and industrialists like Dasari Jairamesh, Gadde Ramamohan Rao, Chalasani Aswini Dutt and Vallabhaneni Vamsi Mohan on us at the time of elections. We carried these leaders on our heads without much acquaintance. The candidates had no direct contact with us, but we worked for them. Now, Kesineni Nani had been with us since January 2013 and we have better relationship. How can we miss such a candidate,” asked a senior TD leader, Sambasiva Rao, from Nandigama Assembly constituency.

Apart from his popularity within the TD cadre here, on which he is banking, Kesineni is also working hard to understand the politics and peoples’ requirements. He has two separate programmes – one for the urban Vijayawada city with three Assembly segments and the other for the four rural segments. “I have understood that drinking water, roads and irrigation are the three prime issues that people are looking at the leaders,” he said and maintained that he had his own agenda to address them. “Though located on the banks of river Krishna, several parts of the city does not get the river water for drinking. The same is the problem with the villages in Nandigama, Jaggaiahpet, Mylavaram and Tiruvur. People are expecting us to give safe drinking water and if an elected representative cannot give them the water to drink, why should they vote for?,” he shot back pointing an accusing finger at his predecessors who could not address this issue. As a successful businessman, he was able to understand the fact that every year huge amount of funds gets lapsed with the State and the Central governments due to various reasons. “If we can tap these funds, we can address the basic problems of the people. I have a plan to tap these funds and use them for the people. I will not allow even a single rupee to get lapsed,” he assets.

He said his priority would be to get the capital for Seemandhra around Vijayawada city, get flyovers at Benz Center and Kanakadurga temple, ensure round the clock drinking water in the city and all villages and provide better road connectivity in rural areas.

When asked about his strength and the competition he is facing from his rivals, Kesineni says that the two rivals, Koneru Rajendra Prasad of the YSR Congress and Devineni Avinash of the Congress, were fighting for second place and obviously the YSR Congress grabs the second place, he says with a smile on his face.

On coordination between the TD and the BJP at Vijayawada West Assembly Constituency, Kesineni says that he was able to convince the leaders and bring them together.