Kakinada: Three political leaders — Nimmakayala China Rajappa (Telugu Desam), Thota Venkata Narasimham (from ruling YSRC), and Vanga Geetha (also from ruling YSRC) — were on a winning spree ever since they jumped into the poll arena about a decade ago from the erstwhile East Godavari district.
The USP or popularity of these three leaders was their mass contact programme and mingling with the people of their constituency, be it men, women, and people from different sections of society.
China Rajappa hailing from the Konaseema region joined the Telugu Desam, who had the blessings of the TD founder and cine actor late N.T. Rama Rao.
Rajappa was elected to the post of party president from the erstwhile East Godavari district in 1992 and remained in the post till he became the deputy chief minister and the home minister in 2014. He was not holding the post of president between 2004 and 2006.
Rajappa was elected to the post of MLC in 2007 for six years when the Legislative Council was constituted for the first time during Chief Minister late Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy’s regime.
Thereafter, a lottery system was introduced for the proceedings of MLC elections. In the new system, China Rajappa was elected to the post of MLC for six years.
After the bifurcation of the state and during the 2014 elections, he was elected as MLA from Peddapuram constituency on Telugu Desam ticket. Though he belongs to the Konaseema region, the people of the upland area voted for him to make him an MLA. Rajappa tasted victory in the 2019 elections also when the Jagan wave was sweeping across the state.
A down–to–earth politician, China Rajappa mingles freely with people and he used to say that he was the true successor of the late Lok Sabha Speaker G.M.C. Balayogi who belonged to Konaseema district. Once he said that he was fond of mingling with party workers rather than holding posts.
Vanga Geetha was drawn towards the TD when late N.T. Rama Rao gave a clarion call to women to join politics. Those were days when she was carrying the TD party flag all alone and campaigned for NTR. Geetha was elected to the post of chairperson, Zilla Parishad, from Kothapeta Mandal in Konaseema district.
While holding the post of chairperson, Zilla Parishad, she made an entry to the Rajya Sabha. Thereafter, Geetha joined the Praja Rajyam Party in 2009 and fought elections from the Pithapuram constituency on PRP ticket. Registering a thumping victory, she defeated Mudragada Padmanabham, a senior leader, who was relegated to the third position. Telugu Desam candidate S.V.S.N. Varma secured a second position. In 2019, Geetha joined the YSRC and became victorious from the Kakinada Lok Sabha seat defeating her nearest rival and TD candidate Chalamalasetty Sunil.
In the 2014 elections, she was again fielded by the YSRC from the Pithapuram seat, an important constituency, against the Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan.
While Thota Venkata Narasimham belongs to a political family devoted to the Congress party. His brother Thota Venkata Chalam was a prominent Congress leader. After the demise of Venkata Chalam, Thota Narasimham, who was a government employee, quit the job and jumped into the poll fray and fought elections in 2004 from the Jaggampeta seat on Congress ticket and became victorious.
Repeating the feat in 2009, Narasimham was inducted into the cabinet. He worked as president of the district Congress committee also. Following the bifurcation of the state, he joined the TD and got elected from the Kakinada Lok Sabha seat on the TD ticket.
He was the floor leader of the party in Lok Sabha till 2019. He could not fight elections in 2019 due to severe health issues. But, his wife Satya Vani contested from the Peddapuram constituency in 2019 and was defeated by TD candidate N. China Rajappa.
Now, Narasimham is contesting from the Jaggampeta assembly segment against Jyothula Venkata Appa Rao (Nehru) of the TD-Jana Sena alliance candidate.
Narasimham, who claims to be an expert in the farming sector, said that he knows the problems of the constituency and how to sort it out those issues permanently. Narasimham claimed he would win from the Jaggampeta seat for the third time.
