Internal feuds trouble both TDP & YSRCP

Vijayawada: With election heat increasing in the State and the political parties getting busy finalising names of the candidates to contest the ensuing polls, the two main political parties are facing the problem of internal feuds among the leaders.

The supporters of TDP leaders Vangaveeti Radha Krishna and Bonda Uma Maheswara Rao are at loggerheads. Uma Maheswara Rao is the in-charge of the Vijayawada Central constituency and hopeful of getting ticket to contest the 2024 Assembly elections.

However, supporters of Radha Krishna are hopeful the party would field their leader for the elections. Bonda Umamaheswara Rao won from the Central constituency in 2014. In 2019, YSRCP candidate Malladi Vishnu was elected. Vishnu won by a margin of 848 votes by defeating Praja Rajyam Party candidate Vangaveeti Radha Krishna.

Vishnu got 52,426 votes and Vangaveeti Radha secured 51,576 votes. CPM candidate Ch Baburao got 38,273 votes.

In 2004 elections, Vangaveeti Radha Krishna of Congress won the elections.

Both Bonda Uma and Vangaveeti Radha Krishna are aspirants for the TDP ticket for the Central constituency. Differences cropped up between the supporters of the two leaders after a social media post against Vangaveeti Radha Krishna. It was suspected that the supporters of Bonda Uma posted the derogatory comments against Radha Krishna.

Subsequently, social media posts surfaced against former MLA Bonda Uma Maheswara Rao. Both leaders have good number of supporters and belong to same Kapu caste.

The TDP leadership may face some difficulty in choosing the candidate for the central constituency. Vangaveeti Radha Krishna is the son of former MLA Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga Rao.

On the other hand, senior TDP leader Bonda Umamaheswara Rao has been aspiring for the seat and actively participating in the TDP activities and protests on people’s problems like power charges, price rise, three capitals etc.

If the TDP gives ticket to Bonda Uma, the supporters of Vangaveeti Radha Krishna may not support Bonda. If the party fields Radha Krishna, the supporters of Bonda Uma may not support the contesting candidate. Chaos prevailed in the constituency due to the social media war.

The ruling YSRCP is also facing similar situation in the Central constituency. The YSRCP announced Vellampalli Srinivas as the in-charge of the constituency. He is the sitting MLA of West Assembly constituency. The supporters of Central MLA Malladi Vishnu categorically made it clear that they won’t support Velampalli Srinivas in the elections.

Vellampalli personally met Malladi Vishnu and sought his support for the ensuring polls. But, the sitting MLA is in no mood to digest the denial of in-charge post by the party leadership. Malladi Vishnu for the past few years extensively toured the constituency regularly and took part in all the party activities and programmes like Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhuthvam and others.

Though Vishnu may support the contestant Vellampalli Srinivas but it is not known how his supporters will respond. The party high command is trying to pacify Vishnu and convince him to extend co-operation to ensure Vellampalli’s victory in the elections. Both Vishnu and Vellampalli are staunch supporters of CM Y S Jagan.