Except for a five-year period in the last three decades, Vizianagaram Assembly constituency has been a fortress of the Telugu Desam Party and its candidate P Ashok Gajapati Raju, a descendant of the Vizianagaram Maharaja.
Notwithstanding the local, state or national level phenomenon, voters in the constituency have been constantly voting for Gajapati Raju except for 2004 elections where Ashok’s rival candidate Kolagatla Veerabhadra Swamy won. However, the situation is likely to be different this year as voter awareness has increased and the general mood has swung towards development due to the recent agitations for united Andhra Pradesh.
The Vizianagaram assembly segment mainly comprises urban voters from Vizianagaram municipality and Vizianagaram mandal. Despite being represented by the Maharajah dynasty, the constituency has always been ignored in terms of development. The works to upgrade the Vizianagaram town ring road to four lanes has been long-delayed due to paucity of funds.
The `100-crore drinking water project to supply safe drinking water to Vizianagaram town does not seem to be a reality in the near future as the government has not released any funds forcing the citizens to fight for drinking water at water tankers and public taps during summer.
Other projects like development of the bund along Peda Cheruvu tank, parking lots, underground drainage system and frequent inundation of low-lying areas during monsoon are some issues that could have an impact during polls. Even the assurances for the construction of a university, working women’s hostel and a 300-bedded ESI hospital remain unfulfilled.
The issue of state bifurcation also is likely to have a major impact on the elections as Vizianagaram is the only district headquarter in the neighbourhood that witnessed violent agitations.
Sitting MLA:
Ashok Gajapathi Raju
Party: Telugu Desam Party
Votes polled: 52,890
Margin of victory: 3,282
Runner-up:
K Veerabhadra Swamy
Party: Congress
Votes polled: 49,608
Total electors: 2,13,988
Men: 1,04,692
Women: 1,09,296
Poll percentage: 64.77
Total votes polled: 1,38,543
No of contestants: 10
Men: 9
Women: 1
No of polling stations: 217
Avg per polling station: 985
