TDP clears Velagapudi, Ganababu for Visakha East and West

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Jana Sena Party (JSP), which are tied up to fight against the ruling Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) in the general Andhra Pradesh elections slated for April, announced their first list of candidates on Saturday.

Two candidates from the reorganised district of Visakhapatnam figured in the list. While PGVR Naidu, popularly known as Ganababu, of TDP, is all set to contest again from the Visakha West constituency, Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu, who won the Visakha East seat thrice on the TDP ticket was chosen again by the party to contest from the constituency.

Eying a hat-trick, Ganababu has already launched his campaign in the constituency and is meeting the voters. He won the Visakha West seat in the elections held in 2014 and 2019by,  defeating his nearest rivals from the YSRCP, Dadi Ratnakar and Malla Vijaya Prasad respectively. YSRCP has almost finalised the candidature of Adari Anand Kumar for the constituency.

Proving his supremacy in the Visakha East constituency, since its formation in 2008, Ramakrishna Babu achieved a hat-trick by emerging victorious in all the elections held so far. The TDP strongman won seats in the elections held in 2009, 2014, and 2019, and is confident about continuing the winning streak. He is set to cross swords with MVV Satyanarayana, of YSRCP. Satyanarayana, who is representing the Vizag Lok Sabha constituency, has been made to be in-charge of the Visakha East constituency, while Botcha Jhansi has been chosen for the parliament seat.

Notably, the list did not consist of any candidates belonging to JSP from the reorganised Visakhapatnam district. The party announced the candidature of Konatala Ramakrishna, who recently joined the party, for the Anakapalle constituency in the neighbouring Anakapalle district.

The list, with 99 candidates, was released by TDP’s Chief, N Chandrababu Naidu, and the Jana Sena Party President, Pawan Kalyan, at Vundavalli in Vijayawada.
With the main parties in the process of finalising the candidates for the upcoming Andhra Pradesh elections, the political atmosphere is hotting up in the state.

This article is written by senior journalist Lakkoju Nagesh Babu.

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