With the Telugu Desam Party deciding to field sitting Member of Parliament Galla Jayadev from Guntur, all eyes are on the Narsaraopet Lok Sabha segment.
The party high command is yet to take a call on this crucial segment, represented by senior leaders. The TDP has won the seat four times, including in 2009 and 2014.
Health issues
Seven-time MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao who is representing the segment, is not in the best of health, having undergone two surgeries in the recent past. Mr. Sambasiva Rao, however, recently announced that he is ready for yet another fight and scoffed at rumours that he is calling it a day .
Assembly Speaker Kodela Siva Prasada Rao, who has won from the Narsaraopet Assembly segment five consecutive times, has now emerged as a front runner, though he dismisses the idea.
“I always wanted to serve the people of Narsaraopet since I was elected for the first time in 1983. In 1991 itself, the party wanted me to contest in the Lok Sabha elections, but I knew that the politics in Delhi would not suit me as I am a man of the masses. Narsaraopet and Sattenapalli are like my two eyes,’’ Dr. Rao told The Hindu on Tuesday.
Son rise
Dr. Rao’s long political innings may not come to an end immediately, though his son Sivaram is keen to continue in his footsteps. Dr. Sivaram has taken an active interest in developing the Narsaraopet segment and has emerged as a leader in his own right in Palnadu.
Dr. Rao had been a popular surgeon in the town before he plunged into politics heeding the call given by NT Rama Rao. Ever since 1983, he has been an undisputed leader in Palnadu and held several key portfolios in successive TDP governments headed by NTR and later by Chandrababu Naidu.
In the elections held after bifurcation of the State in 2014, Dr. Rao shifted from Narsaraopet to Sattenapalli to accommodate BJP leader Nalabothu Venkat Rao and won against YSRCP candidate Ambati Rambabu and went on to become Speaker.
