VISAKHAPATNAM: Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency in the State is the cynosure of all eyes in every election. Keeping its reputation, the constituency is yet again set to witness an electoral battle between two highly educated candidates. M Sribharat of TDP, president of GITAM (Deemed to be University), is an alumni of Stanford University. Botcha Jhansi, wife of Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana, is a two-time MP. She did MA in Philosophy and BL, besides having a doctorate. Sribharat made his electoral debut by contesting from Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency in 2019.
In a triangular contest, Sribharat lost the election by a narrow margin. While MVV Satyanarayana of TDP got 4,36,906 votes in the last elections, Sribharat polled 4,32,492 votes. Former CBI Joint Director VV Lakshminarayana, who contested the Lok Sabha election on Jana Sena ticket, stood third by getting 2,88,874 votes. Former minister and BJP nominee Daggubat i Purandeswari secured a mere 33,982 votes in the election. As part of its ‘Mission 175’, the YSRC has fielded Satyanarayana from Visakhapatnam East Assembly constituency to take on TDP strongman Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu, who won the seat thrice. Jhansi was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bobbili and Vizianagaram earlier, besides holding Vizianagaram Zilla Parishad Chairperson post.
Though Jhansi was the first candidate officially announced for Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency, she launched the election campaign only last month. Whereas Sribharat participated in TDP meetings even before his candidature was finalised for the Lok Sabha seat and even interacted with the people through ‘Coffee with Bharat’. The YSRC is likely to play the BC card in the electoral battle as Jhansi belongs to the BC community. Though there may be more candidates in the election fray, the main contest is likely to be between the YSRC and the TDP. One has to wait and see will the YSRC pull off a victory in the TDP stronghold Vizag, observed a political analyst.