Keen contest on cards for Kakinada Lok Sabha seat

KAKINADA: There is a keen contest between YSR Congress, Telugu Desam and Jana Sena for the Kakinada Lok Sabha constituency.

Senior politician and former MLA Vanga Gita from YSRC, Chalamalasetty Sunil from Telugu Desam and Jyothula Venkateswara Rao from Jana Sena are contesting from the seat. Yalla Venkata Rammohan Rao (Rambabu) is contesting on a BJP ticket.

Incidentally, all the four candidates belong to Kapu community.

Ms Gita has become a main attraction for voters as she can impress them through her approach. Since the launch of Telugu Desam, Ms Gita has been in politics and was admired by late Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao.

She has not known defeat in her political career. She was elected as ZPTC from Kothapet constituency and later, was elected as the Zilla Parishad chairperson during the previous TD rule.

Later, she was nominated for Rajya Sabha by the TD. However, she joined the now defunct Praja Rajyam and got a ticket from Pithapuram Assembly segment. She won the elections by defeating senior politician and Kapunadu leader Mudragada Padmanabham of the Congress and Telugu Desam candidate S.V.S.N. Varma (the sitting Pithapuram MLA), in the 2009 elections. However, after bifurcation of the state, she kept a low profile for the past five years and now joined the YSR Congress and is contesting for the Kakinada Lok Sabha seat.

According to sources, her candidature has strengthened many YSRC candidates like Dwarampudi Chandrasekhara Reddy (Kakinada Assembly), Pendem Dorababu (Pithapuram), Parvatha Purnachandra Prasad (Prathipadu), Thota Vani (Peddapuram) and Jyothula Chantibabu in Jaggampet.

Meanwhile, TD candidate Sunil faced defeat twice in his bid to win the Kakinada Lok Sabha constituency from different parties. Initially, he had joined the erstwhile Praja Rajyam and contested from the constituency. He was defeated by the then Congress candidate M.M. Pallam Raju in 2009. Later, he contested from the same constituency on behalf of YSRC in 2014 elections. He was defeated by TD candidate Thota Venkata Narasimham.

Now, he has joined in the TD. According to sources, he is trying to get sympathy from the people to win in the elections.

Jyothula Venkateswara Rao, Chiranjeevi Blood Bank founder, is contesting from Jana Sena. He will also give a tough fight to other two candidates, by explaining Jana Sena’s manifesto to the people. He said that he was a common man and will be available to the people.

Yalla Dorababu as a BJP candidate is campaigning along with his respective Assembly candidates.