People being deprived of basic facilities in Kovvur

Rajamahendravaram: The locals are strongly believing that Kovvur Assembly constituency is being let down by the government. The people here are facing a galore of problems and lack of essential facilities like roads and hospitals.

They allege that Taneti Vanita had not done much in terms of development of the constituency despite holding the key position of Home Minister in the Cabinet. But there are chances of YSRCP once again allotting Kovvur ticket to the Minister.

Coming to TDP, though the party has been the dominant force in Kovvur since the beginning, but group fights are weakening it. There is no consensus in the party on the candidature of former Minister KS Jawahar and the absence of another strong candidate is disappointing the leaders and activists.

Meanwhile, Jana Sena Party hopes to seek this seat as part of the alliance and former MLA TV Rama Rao is expected to contest as the party candidate.

In this backdrop, it is a crucial question whether the YSRCP wins the seat or the TDP?

Kovvur Assembly constituency is a part of Rajahmundry

Parliamentary constituency, which was earlier in erstwhile West Godavari district. After the recent division of districts, this constituency was added in East Godavari district. This constituency has Kovvur, Chagallu and Thallapudi mandals and Kovvur municipal area. Since 1955, 13 elections have been held in this constituency so far. It was declared as SC reserved as part of 2008 delimitation, which was earlier in general category.

In this constituency, SC and BC voters play a decisive role while Kamma and Kapu communities are in majority.

Pendyala Venkata Krishna Rao (Krishna Babu) had created record as an MLA by getting elected to the State Assembly five times from the constituency. He won the elections held in 1983, 1985, 1989, 1994 and 2004 as TDP candidate.

In 1999, TDP won the entire district, but Congress candidate GS Rao won in Kovvur. Both Congress and TDP won four times each while Kovvur was in general category. TV Rama Rao (TDP) won elections in 2009, KS Jawahar (TDP) in 2014 and Taneti Vanitha (YSRCP) won in 2019 after it was shifted to SC category.

Between 2014-19, the TDP government gave KS Jawahar seat in the Cabinet. In 2019, the same tradition continued after the victory of the YSRCP. Chief Minsiter YS Jagan Mohan Reddy allotted the important home department to Kovvuru MLA Taneti Vanita. Despite being represented by Ministers for 10 consecutive years, there was no significant progress in the constituency.

Lack of proper roads, drainage system and sanitation are seen in every mandal of the constituency. The establishment of a degree college in Kovvur remained an unfulfilled promise for many years. Also, the area hospital here couldn’t provide proper medical services despite having a spacious area and building.

People say that issue pertaining to transport – provision of proper services - both train and bus services could be one of the main issues in the coming election. Express trains do not stop at Kovvur railway station and passengers are facing many problems, people point out. After the closure of road-cum-rail bridge, express buses and super luxury buses are not coming to Kovvur. People complain that they have to spend minimum of Rs 200 for an auto-rickshaw to catch an express bus at Gammon Bridge point.