VIJAYAWADA : Rich in culture, spirituality, heritage and known for its abundant opportunities for business and hospitality, Vijayawada is the second largest city in Andhra Pradesh.
Once the epicentre of politics for more than four decades, the city, popularly known as Bezawada, has seen a rapid growth and transformation in terms of political developments in the past ten years after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
With Vijayawada being located in the centre of Andhra Pradesh, it became an apple’s eye ever since State politics and administration started operating from the city.
As the general elections are round the corner, the bustling city has witnessed a massive electioneering in the past one month with candidates from various political parties carried out several campaignings promising the voters of development and welfare, if their party voted to power.
Vijayawada Central
The Vijayawada Central constituency has an electoral strength of around 2.73 lakh with women taking a majority share of 1.4 lakh against men (1.3 lakh). The Assembly segment was formed in the year 2008 as per the delimitation orders and witnessed three elections so far and people of the Assembly segment elected Malladi Vishnuvardhan twice in 2009 on Congress ticket and 2019 representing YSRC, and Bonda Umamaheshwara Rao once in 2014 on TDP ticket. While the majority of the people residing under the Central constituency are employee class, the poor and middle class section contributes around 40 per cent located in Ajit Singh Nagar, Payakapuram, Satyanarayanapuram and other areas nearby.
While the tripartite alliance supported TDP candidate Bonda Umamaheshwara Rao contesting for the third time, West constituency MLA Velampalli Srinivasa Rao is taking on Bonda.
Velampalli Srinivasa Rao was shifted to Central from his home constituency, due to various reasons including the anti-incumbency factor.
In the 2019 elections, Bonda lost to Malladi Vishnuvardhan with a slight margin of 25 votes. Here in the Central constituency, two major communities—Brahmins and Kapus—are likely to influence the poll outcome.
It has been more than a month of electioneering and TNIE visited the Central constituency and spoke to the public of different walks of life to elicit the expectations and aspirations from the party which will form the government.
While the voters with poor economic background, mainly daily wagers, always are leaning towards the party which gives them hope of the government support to make both ends meet, the employee and middle class section of people were clear in their mind to pour in support for the party which guarantees them employment generation and sustainable development in their lifestyle.
Bhagya Lakshmi, a resident of Ajit Singh Nagar, expressed her confidence that YSRC would come into power for the second time as Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s governance over the past five years brought changes in their lives.
On the other hand, Bhaskar Babu, a private employee, wanted the government to balance both welfare and development equally. “At a time when the middle-class section was suffering to lead a life with all the prices soaring up, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s schemes and governance only focused on one section. This is nothing but injustice,” he maintained.
Vijayawada East
The Vijayawada East constituency has an electoral strength of around 2.66 lakh, including 1.38 lakh women and 1.3 lakh men. The Assembly segment was once a stronghold for Congress party and later became a bastion for TDP and sitting MLA Gadde Ramamohan was elected twice in 2014 and 2019.
The majority of the people residing under the East constituency are business and employee class, while the poor and middle class section contribute around 30 percent located in Patamata, Gunadala, Ranigari Thota, Auto Nagar and Krishna Lanka.
The tripartite alliance supported Telugu Desam Party candidate Gadde Ramamohan contesting for the third time, the ruling YSRC fielded the 36-year-old Devineni Avinash against him. East constituency is one of the highly populated segments after the West constituency with more than 3.5 lakh population.
When TNIE visited the constituency, the majority of the people expressed their willingness to support the YSRC candidate Devineni Avinash hoping that he could do good for the constituency. Not just the poor, both business class and middle class sections are against the TDP candidate Gadde Ramamohan as he failed to address several issues. “Gadde Ramamohan was elected twice and he was never seen in public except during the elections. We thought he would develop the constituency during the TDP regime but to our dismay, he was confined to his own priorities. When Covid-19 hit the nation, Gadde was seen nowhere coming in support of the public,” Seetha Mahalakshmi, a resident of Patamata, criticised. The recent allegations of sex scandal dented the image of Gadde in the constituency.
On the other hand, voters belonging to the Kamma community and other sections seem to be supporting Avinash as he has been working for the betterment of the constituency for the past three years. “Avinash played a crucial role in the construction of Krishna Lanka retaining wall which helped more than 50,000 people residing in the region and Ranigari Thota from inundation,” Vijay Kumar said.
Vijayawada West
Thickly populated Vijayawada West constituency has an electoral strength of around 2.5 lakh. The assembly segment was once a stronghold for Communist party and later became a bastion for Congress and YSRC. Sitting MLA Velampalli Srinivasa Rao was elected twice in 2009 on PRP ticket and in 2019 on YSRC ticket.
The constituency is Muslim dominated with more than 30 per cent of them located in Bhavanipuram and Panja centre, and Nagaralu community has approximately 35,000 vote share.
The tripartite alliance supported BJP candidate Yalamanchili Satyanarayana Chowdary alias Sujana Chowdary, who is contesting for the first time in the direct politics, and the ruling YSRC fielded minority candidate Shaik Asif are gearing up for the tough fight. Though former Union Minister for State Sujana is into politics for more than a decade, he is making his electoral debut from the West constituency as the alliance allotted the seat to BJP.
In the 2019 elections, YSRC party leader Velampalli Srinivasa Rao won the segment effortlessly with a majority of more than 8,000 votes against his opponent Shabana Musarat Khatoon (TDP), daughter of former MLA Jaleel Khan, and Jana Sena party leader Pothina Venkata Mahesh.
Though the JSP leader Pothina Venkata Mahesh joined YSRC after he was denied ticket, there observed no great chances for Asif’s victory as majority of the Nagaralu community is still with TDP and BJP supporting Sujana’s candidature.
“Despite electing YSRC party candidate for twice, there is no remarkable development in the constituency. We are living in utter poor conditions when compared to other segments. The West constituency needs a leader with vision and commitment like Sujana,” said Sarath Kumar, a businessman.
However, Muslim community and other backward sections are supporting YSRC candidate Asif. “There is no other leader like Jagan who really cared for our well-being. The minorities were given equal opportunities in politics and always respect our sentiments. The five-years of Jagan’s governance is a testament to the growth,” Shaik Khasim said.
