VIJAYAWADA: Putting an end to the suspense over the candidate for Anakapalle Lok Sabha constituency, the YSRC on Tuesday named Deputy Chief Minister (Panchayat Raj and Rural Development) Budi Muthyala Naidu for it. His daughter Eerli Anuradha will replace him in Madugula Assembly constituency in Anakapalle district.
The YSRC earlier announced the candidates for all the 175 Assembly and 24 Lok Sabha seats, leaving Anakapalle. It wanted to field a strong candidate from Anakapalle as it was speculated that Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan’s brother Nagababu would contest the seat. After the tripartite alliance among the TDP, JSP and BJP, the seat was allotted to the BJP and several seniors vied for the party ticket.
With the BJP announcing Rajya Sabha MP CM Ramesh’s candidature, the YSRC had also named its candidate for Anakapalle. While Ramesh hails from the Velama community, Muthyala Naidu belongs to Koppula Velama, a BC community. Ramesh hails from Kadapa district, while Muthyala Naidu is a local. He is loyal to the YSR family since he was in the Congress. He won as an MLA for the first time from Madugula in the erstwhile undivided Visakhapatnam district on YSRC ticket in 2014. Again, he won the seat in 2019 and was made Deputy Chief Minister.
Muthyala Naidu started his political career with the Congress in 1988, and won as a ward member of Taruva panchayat, and became Upa Sarpanch. He was later elected as a ZPTC member and Mandal Parishad president. The YSRC leadership is said to have chosen Muthyala Naidu as he is noncontroversial and maintains good relations with the party rank and file in the district. Moreover, the constituency has sizeable Koppula Velama population. Ramesh, on the other hand, is a businessman, and started his political career in the TDP. He is the founder chairman of Rithwik Projects Pvt Ltd, a leading infrastructure developer in India.
Ramesh was nominated to the Rajya Sabha twice by the TDP. In 2019 after the TDP lost power in the State, Ramesh along with two other TDP RS members from the State, YS Chowdary and TG Venkatesh, switched over to the BJP. Ramesh aspired to contest from Visakhapatnam, but the TDP did not concede the seat to its alliance partner BJP. Ramesh, however, managed to get the BJP ticket for the neighbouring Anakapalle segment.
Muthyala Naidu
He belongs to Koppula Velama BC community. He is loyal to the YSR family since he was in the Congress. He won as an MLA for the first time from Madugula Assembly constituency on YSRC ticket in 2014. Again, he won the seat in the 2019 elections.
CM Ramesh
He belongs to Velama community. Hailing from Kadapa district, he is the founder chairman of Rithwik Projects Pvt Ltd, one of the leading infra developers in India. He started his political career in TDP. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha twice by the TDP