VIJAYAWADA: The Gudivada Assembly constituency is going to see a keen contest with three prominent leaders - two sitting MLAs and one former MLA - likely to be in the fray.
PRP chief Chiranjeevi has already announced the candidature of Ex-MLA Ravi Venkateswara Rao on behalf of the party.
The Gudivada Assembly seat was won by the late NT Rama Rao twice in 1983 and 1985. Subsequently, his follower Ravi Sobhanadri Chowdary contested in the 1985 bye-election, after NTR chose to retain the Hindupur seat, and won it.
The string of TDP victories was stopped by Katari Eswar Kumar when he defeated Ravi Sobhanadri Chowdary in the 1989 elections with a margin of just around 500 votes. But, the subsequent elections in 1994, 1999, 2000 bye-election and the 2004 polls saw TDP candidates Ravi Sobhanadri Chowdary, Ravi Haragopal, Ravi Venkateswara Rao and Kodali Nani win the seat.
Although Kodali Nani was given the TDP ticket at the last minute in 2004, he managed to win by a handsome margin of almost 9,000 votes.
Nani enjoys the unstinted support of the youth in the segment in view of his friendship with actor and NTR’s grandson Junior NTR.
While the TDP ticket is almost sure to be given to Nani, the Congress is yet to announce its candidate.
Many believe it is going to be minister Pinnamaneni Venkateswara Rao.
Venkateswara Rao, the sitting MLA of Mudinepalli, has to move to another constituency this time as Mudinep a l l i has been scrapped in the delimitation.
The minister, many in the Congress feel, is the only hope for the party to beat the TDP in Gudivada.
The candidature of Venkateswara Rao, who shifted his loyalty from the TDP to the PRP, has been confirmed during Chiranjeevi’s tour of the Krishna district.
The Gudivada constituency had Pamarru and Pedaparupudi mandals in it before delimitation. Now those mandals have been replaced by Gudlavalleru and Nandivada, which were originally part of the Mudinepalli constituency.
While Nani and Ravi Venkateswara Rao have considerable clout in Pamarru and Pedaparupudi, which have traditionally voted for the TDP, Gudlavalleru and Nandivada have been electing Pinnamaneni Venkateswara Rao for the last three elections.
What will make the fight tougher is the fact that all the three likely contenders belong to the Kamma community.
Ravi Venkateswara Rao, however, is confident of winning the seat riding on the twin advantage of his father Ravi Sobhanadri Chowdary’s goodwill among the Kamma voters and Chiranjeevi’s image besides the expected shift in the Kapu vote due to the PRP factor.