YSRCP considers woman candidate for Gajuwaka

Visakhapatnam : The ruling party’s choice of candidate for Gajuwaka constituency is changing each passing day.

Already, the party high command has denied ticket to the sitting MLA Tippala Nagireddy. However, his followers hoped that Nagireddy’s son Tippala Devan Reddy would be given a chance this time. But the Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy refused it, reasoning that the party is keen on allotting tickets based on the survey.

Following the survey report, Devan Reddy resigned from his post of constituency in-charge and continued as the party leader. In his place, GVMC corporator Urukuti Rama Chandra Rao from Gajuwaka area has been given the responsibility of constituency in-charge.

Since then, protests have been staged in Gajuwaka constituency against the party’s decision. Recently, Nagireddy's followers protested before YSRCP regional coordinator Y V Subba Reddy when the latter organised a review meeting in the segment. They demanded Subba Reddy to allot the ticket to Nagireddy again.

Apparently, they made it clear that they would not be extending any support to another candidate whoever replaces Nagireddy.

A majority of voters in Gajuwaka belong to the Yadava community. Based on the caste equations, YSRCP thought that Urukuti Rama Chandra Rao, who belongs to the same community, is fit to be fielded from the constituency. Another advantage is that Rama Chandra Rao’s wife belongs to Kapu community. YSRCP believes that by fielding him in Gajuwaka, the party candidate would garner the votes of both Kapu and Yadava communities.

Similarly, in Gajuwaka, Kapus continue to dominate. Keeping this in view, Jana Sena Party president K Pawan Kalyan contested from here last elections. However, he lost due to the failure of poll management.

Meanwhile, MLA Palla Srinivasa Rao from TDP is gearing up to contest from the constituency. From the Jana Sena Party, Kona Tatarao expressed his willingness to contest from Gajuwaka.

However, in an interesting development, sources say that ruling party may field a new candidate in Gajuwaka. They further say that Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation Mayor Golagani Hari Venkata Kumari is likely to be the candidate of the party.

YSRCP firmly believes that by fielding a woman from the Yadava community, the desired outcome could be achieved. Earlier, Hari Venkata Kumari was nominated for the post of Mayor when no one expected it.

With an army of relatives residing in Gajuwaka for the Mayor and a host of development works carried out in the constituency limits, it is learnt that both will work in favour of Hari Venkata Kumari and the party gears up to highlight the same in election campaign.

After the establishment of the GVMC governing body, the Mayor laid the foundation stone for several development works of the constituency taken up by investing crores of rupees. Seniors in the party say that an official announcement regarding the same will be made in a day or two.