TD Sweeps North Andhra, Regains Bastion

Visakhapatnam: Telugu Desam had a clean sweep of north coastal Andhra, except for the Araku and Paderu Assembly segments and the lone ST parliament constituency Araku in the 2024 elections results of which were announced on Tuesday.

This was for the second time the TD had a sweep of north Andhra. In 1994, the party under the leadership of NT Rama Rao won all 37 Assembly seats. The party won 216 seats out of 294 constituencies in alliance with CPI and CPM. The CPI won in Pendurthi and Chintapalli ST segments.

Palavalasa Rajasekharam was the only candidate to win from the Congress in the entire north coastal Andhra Pradesh in 1994. He won from Vunukuru constituency in Srikakulam district.

“This election is a repeat of 1994 polls which swept the north Andhra region,’’ said TD spokesperson Pothan Reddy.

Notable among the winners are former minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao who continued his winning spree by defeating another former minister Mutamsetti Srinivasa Rao of YSRC in Bheemili constituency, TD state president Kinkarapu Atchennaidu who won for the third time from Tekkali defeating Duvvada Srinivas of YSRC, Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu who also won for the third time winning Srikakulam parliament constituency defeating lesser known YSRC leader Perada Tilak, Ch Ayyanna Patrudu who defeated Petla Umashankar Ganesh of YSRC, former minister Konathala Ramakrishna who defeated M Bharat of YSRC for the Anakapalli constituency and former minister Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy, who came back from retirement after Pendurthi seat was given to Jana Sena, and fought in Madugula defeating Budi Murtyala Naidu’s daughter Erle Anuradha.

Among the losers is education minister Botsa Satyanarayana who lost to former minister Kala Venkata Rao of TD, revenue minister Dharmana Prasada Rao to Gondu Sankar of TD from Srikakulam, former deputy chief minister Dharmana Krishnadas to Boggu Ramana Murthy of TD for the Narasannapeta constituency, deputy chief minister Peedika Rajanna Dora to Gummadi Sandhya Rani of TD in Saluru, deputy chief minister Budi Mutyala Naidu to CM Ramesh of BJP for the Anakapalli Lok Sabha constituency and minister Gudivada Amarnath to TD Visakhapatnam president Palla Srinivasa Rao in Gajuwaka Assembly.

The surprise winner was Nadugukudithi Eswar Rao of BJP who defeated senior MLA Gorla Kiran of YSRC from Etcherla constituency.

The TD won all the 10 Assembly segments in Srikakulam, 9 in Vizianagaram and 15 in Visakhapatnam district. The YSRC could retain Araku Valley where its candidate Regam Matsyalingam defeated BJP’s Pangi Raja Rao and Paderu where its candidate Visweswara Raju defeated Giddi Eswari of TD. Similarly, Chetti Thanuja Rani defeated Kothapalli Geetha for the Araku parliament seat.

“Pawan Kalyan always focused on north Andhra and hoped to get maximum seats. He was concerned with kidney ailments, pending irrigation projects, port pollution in Visakhapatnam and land grabbing. He promised people to solve them in his series of public meetings held in this region which ultimately paid off,’’ said a senior Jana Sena leader.