All eyes are now on Anakapalli Lok Sabha constituency in the district after the BJP fielded Chintakunta Munuswamy Ramesh, popularly known as C.M. Ramesh, as the candidate and Deputy Chief Minister Budi Mutyala Naidu was nominated by YSRCP, for the forthcoming polls to be held on May 13.
People say it is a political battle between local (Muthyala Naidu) and non-local (Ramesh). Political sources say that Mr. Ramesh is completely dependent on the TDP vote bank, which is equally strong as YSRCP vote bank, and has a history of winning the Lok Sabha seat many times. Historically, it was won by either Congress or TDP until the YSRCP won the 2019 elections. While Congress won nine times, TDP has won the seat five times in the past.
Mr. Muthyala Naidu’s native is Devarapalli in Anakapalli district, while Ramesh hails from Kadapa district and settled in Hyderabad. However, both are from Velama community (which is a BC-D category in North Coastal Andhra Pradesh).. Ramesh is the founder-chairman of Ritwik Projects Pvt. Ltd., an infrastructure development company established in 1999, and its turnover increased to over ₹1,000 crore in a span of 14 years.
Mr. Ramesh’s family already visited the district and started meeting the TDP and the JSP cadre to make him a familiar candidate for people of the segment. An internal meeting was also held between them in Anakapalli on Wednesday to decide on holding the first meeting of Mr. Ramesh. Mr. Ramesh’s brother C.M. Rajesh and son Rithwik, have already met the cadre seeking their support. TDP’s Chintakayala Ayyanna Patradu, Dadi Veerabhadra Rao and other key leaders met the Ramesh’s family, which is guided by the BJP’s State secretary Kethineni Surendra Mohan.
Speaking to The Hindu on Wednesday (March 27), Mr. Surendra Mohan said, “Mr. Ramesh is coming to Anakapalli on March 29 to hold a meeting with workers and a public meeting of the three alliance parties. The venue was finalised on Wednesday evening. It is a private ground, opposite to JL School on the Anakapalli-Achyuthapuram road. In the past, Mr. Ramesh came to Anakapalli for a BJP meeting in July 2023.”
Mr. Ramesh served as Rajya Sabha MP twice (TDP and BJP). He is sitting Rajya Sabha member from the BJP. Mr. Muthyala Naidu, the sitting MLA from Madugula Assembly segment in the district, is currently the Deputy Chief Minister.
On March 16, the ruling YSRCP announced its candidates for the all 175 Assembly and 24 Lok Sabha seats, except for the Anakapalli Lok Sabha seat. It postponed the announcement of the candidate from Anakapalli Lok Sabha seat waiting for the opposition candidate. Finally both the parties announced their candidates.
Before announcing the name of Mr. Mutyala Naidu, YSRCP appointed Peela Rama Kumari, sister of Visakha Dairy Chairman Adari Anand Kumar, as the coordinator of that Anakapalli Lok Sabha seat in place of sitting MP B.V. Satyavathi of its party. However, with the BJP nominating Mr. C.M. Ramesh, Ms. Rama Kumari reportedly expressed disinterest in contesting the elections. With this, the ruling party selected Mr. Mutyala Naidu.
Earlier, the Anakapalli MP seat was allotted to JSP as part of alliance with TDP, before Mr. C.M. Ramesh’s name came into picture. JSP president Pawan Kalyan’s brother K. Nagababu was expected to contest from the seat and Mr. Nagababu had even toured the constituency for a few days. But after the tripartite alliance was finalised, the JSP had to sacrifice the seat in favour of the BJP.
