The big fight for Vizag seat

The big fight for Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha seat between the Union Minister of State for Commerce, D Purandeswari, and Rajya Sabha MP T Subbarami Reddy, took a new turn on Wednesday. While the Minister's husband and MLA Daggubati Venkateswara Rao took strong objection to the claim made by Reddy that he would contest from Visakhapatnam and alleged that the MP was a "fraudster," Reddy retorted, saying that Rao does not know anything about Visakhapatnam.

At a press conference, Rao denied that Purandreswari had opted for Narasaraopet Lok Sabha constituency during 2014 general elections. He said no such request had been made to the party high command. He said he knows Subbarami Reddy since the days when he sold in black the cement supplied to him while executing the contract of Nagarjuna Sagar Project. He also accused him of having committed irregularities in the contracts pertaining to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant reservoir works and recently in the Rajiv Rahadari project which is being probed by a House Committee.

Rao said that they had been silent about Reddy's campaign that they had asked him to recommend to the Congress high command for change of seat, thinking that the issue would subside. "We want to clarify that we do not want to leave the Vizag seat," Rao said, adding a final decision about the seat would be taken by the party high command.

The controversy erupted as Reddy has launched a campaign for the Vizag seat and has been claiming that it belongs to him. Reddy has been claiming that the high command decided to field Purandeswari fromVisakhapatnam when she joined the party in 2004 and was immediately inducted into the central cabinet.

Subbarami Reddy made it clear that there was no question of compromise on this issue. "I will continue to stake my claim for the seat." He said he was confident that the high command would agree with his argument.

Reddy said he was shocked by the language used by Rao. "It shows that they do not have political maturity." He said that when Y S Rajasekhara Reddy refused to entertain them when they wanted to join Congress, it was he who took them to Ghulam Nabi Azad and other Congress leaders. Refuting the allegation that he had done nothing for Vizag, he said it was he who was responsible for whatever development the city had witnessed till 2004.

Subbarami Reddy said, "Rao seems to have lost his balance. I did not suggest that Purandeswari should contest from Narsaraopet. It was they who wanted to do so," he said. Asked about the allegations regarding the contracts including Rajiv Rahadari � bagged by the firms owned by him � Reddy said he was in no way connected with the family business. "If there are any irregularities, the House Committee will take care of it," he said.