The Visakhapatnam East Assembly constituency, one of the four prime Assembly constituencies in the heart of the city, has been the TDP’s fortress for the last 15 years. The present sitting MLA Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu, who is from the ‘Kamma’ community strongly survived the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) wave in the year 2009 and YSRCP waves during the last two elections, though the Opposition party candidates were from the ‘Yadava’ community, which has a huge number of voters in the constituency.
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YSRCP candidate in Visakhapatnam East Assembly constituency M.V.V. Satyanarayana taking part in the campaign in Visakhapatnam. | Photo Credit: K.R. DEEPAK
Very well ahead of the elections, the YSRCP high command had appointed the present Visakhapatnam MP M.V.V. Satyanarayana as the constituency in-charge, ignoring three important ‘Yadava’ community leaders, including MLC Vamsi Krishna Srinivas Yadav, Mayor Golagani Hari Venkata Kumari and former Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority (VMRDA) Chairperson A Vijaya Nirmala.
Mr. Satyanarayana has been vigorously taking part in the election campaigning for more than three months.
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Coordinating with the local YSRCP corporators, ward presidents, in-charges, Mr Satyanarayana has been touring every ward as part of a door-to-door campaign, ‘Gadapa Gadapa Ki Mana Prabhutvam’.
Apart from financially assisting the needy and helpless, he has also been initiating development works through his MPLADS funds and is also explaining what has the YSRCP done in the last five years.
The TDP MLA has also started campaigning and is organising door-to-door canvassing regularly. The TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh had also organised ‘Shankavaram’ in the constituency during February. Community coordinating programmes like ‘BC Garjana’ and ‘Jayaho BC’ were also conducted..
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MP candidates from both the parties, Botcha Jhansi Lakshmi (YSRCP) and M. Sribharat (TDP), have also been conducting ward visits as part of the campaign in this constituency in support of their party candidates.
Former YSRCP leader Vamsi Krishna Srinivas Yadav, who joined JSP, had extended complete support to the TDP candidate. He also assured the TDP high command that he would put all his efforts to ensure victory of Mr Ramakrishna Babu with a huge majority in the district.
The YSRCP corporators and leaders say that the residents of the East constituency have seen what the YSRCP has done in the last five years. Apart from the regular welfare schemes promised as part of ‘Navaratnalu’, major junctions were modernised, wards were developed with all the amenities and the entire Beach Road stretch was given a facelift.
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They say that if the YSRCP comes to power again, development will be speeded up in the constituency.
The ruling party leaders allege that during the TDP regime (2009 to 2019), East constituency was completely ignored and the issues pertaining to fishermen were not at all addressed. It is the YSRCP government which had come up with plans to develop areas like Peda Jalaripeta, they say.
On the other side, the TDP-JSP leaders have been portraying Mr. Satyanarayana as a failed MP. During the campaigns and public programmes, the alliance party leaders allege that during the five years tenure as MP, Mr. Satyanarayana has failed to address any local issue including privatisation of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) and operationalisation of railway zone. They have also been highlighting the incident of kidnap of MP’s family and attributing it to the failure of the political leader to protect his kin. The leaders are also pointing out the MP’s reported statement that he would leave Hyderabad for his business purposes.