VIJAYAWADA: The Vijayawada central constituency is probably the only one in the entire Krishna district where victory or defeat of any candidate will be decided by rebels and not just the equation that exists between the contestants and the people, besides the inevitable caste equation.
While Malladi Vishnu, a Brahmin and former close confidante of famous Kapu leader Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga Rao, is contesting on a Congress ticket, Vangaveeti Radha Krishna, son of Vangaveeti Mohan Ranga Rao, is contesting on a Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) ticket.
Meanwhile, the Grand Alliance has given the seat to Ch Babu Rao, the current floor leader of the CPM at the Vijayawada Municipal Council. Babu Rao, has over past few years, been harbouring hopes of becoming an MLA and has since been very actively involved in many a protests and demonstrations involving people.
Vangaveeti Radha Krishna had contested the Vijayawada (East) constituency in the last election owing to the vote bank, primarily that of the Kapus, that his father had maintained in the Krishna Lanka area. But this time around, Radha Krishna decided to contest the central constituency since a considerable part of the Krishna Lanka area has been carved into the central constituency that constitutes the majority of his vote bank, as was visible the last time.
Meanwhile, Malladi Vishnu, who belongs to the Brahmin community, has the purported backing of the 32,000 odd Brahmin voters in the constituency who also form the biggest chunk of voters.
The other contestant, Babu Rao, has pinned hopes on the people of Ajit Singh Nagar who elected him as corporator, to vote for him enmasse.
He is also banking on the strong presence of the Left parties in the Sa-tyanarayanapuram area where Brahmin votes are the highest.
The CPI holds the sway here, thanks to Gowtam Reddy, who again was an aspirant for either the central or the west seat. Gowtam Reddy, eventually, much against his wish, not given the seat.
But the CPI cadre are also not happy over their leader Gowtam Reddy not being given the seat. Although there have been no defections to other parties, the support nevertheless will be half-hearted and might not result in an all-out transfer of the CPI votes to the CPM.
Besides, this might actually help Congress candidate Malladi Vishnu, a Brahmin, who might become the natural choice for Brahmins.
Meanwhile, Babu Rao’s hopes of winning the seat might well be dashed as around 10 corporators of the TDP belonging to the central constituency feel the party had let them down. Consequently, TDP votes might shift away from the CPM.
Another reason that might affect Radha Krishna is that only around 20,000 Kapu voters exist here, forming the third highest number of voters in the constituency, and not the biggest chunk of voters as was the case in the Vijayawada East constituency in 2004.
Besides, Malladi Vishnu enjoys the support of many a second rung leader who worked passionately with Vangaveeti Ranga and had since shifted loyalty to Vishnu owing to the alleged disinterest that the Ranga family showed them subsequent to Ranga’s death.
This might prompt these supporters of Ranga to work towards the transfer of votes, which might otherwise have gone in favour of Radha Krishna.
