The Vijayawada Central Assembly constituency electorate are very familiar with the candidates of the two major political parties that are going to battle it out in this election.
Besides sitting Telugu Desam MLA Bonda Umamaheswara Rao, who has been renominated, the voters also know well the YSR Congress Party candidate Malladi Vishnu, who served as their representative from 2009 to 2014. The candidate who is familiar is the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Chiguripati Babu Rao. He has contested from the constituency in 2009 and 2014. The BJP candidate, Vamaraju Sathya Murthy is, however, a new face.
The voters of this constituency have elected several persons who have played a key role in State politics of the undivided Andhra Pradesh. Top on the list of game-changers is former Chief Minister Nadendla Bhaskar Rao (1978-1983) and Congress MLA and Kapu leader Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga Rao (1985-1988). The electorate also sent comedian Kota Srinivasa Rao to the Assembly from here on a BJP ticket.
A major part of the Vijayawada Central Constituency was part of the erstwhile Vijayawada East Constituency. The whole of the erstwhile Vijayawada East, small bits of the erstwhile Vijayawada West and Kankipadu Assembly constituencies were put together to create the Central Constituency in 2008, just before the 2009 elections.
Ranga factor
The voters of the constituency were so attached to Mohana Ranga Rao and the Congress that they elected his wife Ratna Kumari twice and his son Radhakrishna once to the Assembly. The situation, however, changed in 1999 when Ms Ratna Kumari left the Congress. The Ranga family and Congress was the winning combination in the constituency right till 2004, the year Mr. Radha Krishna got elected. The Ranga family, however, lost its grip over the constituency after the delimitation.
Mr. Radha Krishna, who left the Congress to join the Praja Rajam Party (PRP), was defeated by Congress candidate and close associate of Mohana Ranga Rao, Mr Vishnu, in 2009. Bifurcation hit Mr Vishnu who was a Congress candidate badly and he polled only 8,838 votes and the sitting MLA Mr. Umamaheswara Rao was elected in 2014.
Mr. Umamaheswara Rao is, however, not the first TDP legislator to be elected from the constituency. The first TDP candidate Adusumilli Jayaprakash was elected in the TDP wave in 1983 and was MLA for just two years after which the Assembly was dissolved.
The voters of the constituency have voted mostly Congress candidates, but have on occasions voted for candidates of other parties like BJP, YSRCP, PRP and CPM too. The BJP got 57,047 votes (Kota Srinivasa Rao with support of TDP) in 1999, and 32,629 votes (Y Jaganmohan Raju) in 2004. The PRP got 51,578 votes (Vangaveeti Radha Krishna) in 2009 and the YSRCP got 55,508 votes (P Gowtham Reddy) in 2014. The CPM got 38,272 votes (Chiguripati Babu Rao with suuport of TDP) in 2009 and 16,032 votes (again Babu Rao) in 2014.
