Heavyweights to battle it out in politically conscious Bezawada
VIJAYAWADA : Rich in culture, spirituality, heritage and known for its abundant opportunities for business and hospitality, Vijayawada is the second largest city in Andhra Pradesh.
Once the epicentre of politics for more than four decades, the city, popularly known as Bezawada, has seen a rapid growth and transformation in terms of political developments in the past ten years after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
With Vijayawada being located in the centre of Andhra Pradesh, it became an apple’s eye ever since State politics and administration started operating from the city.
As the general elections are round the corner, the bustling city has witnessed a massive electioneering in the past one month with candidates from various political parties carried out several campaignings promising the voters of development and welfare, if their party voted to power.
The Vijayawada Central constituency has an electoral strength of around 2.73 lakh with women taking a majority share of 1.4 lakh against men (1.3 lakh). The Assembly segment was formed in the year 2008 as per the delimitation orders and witnessed three elections so far and people of the Assembly segment elected Malladi Vishnuvardhan twice in 2009 on Congress ticket and 2019 representing YSRC, and Bonda Umamaheshwara Rao once in 2014 on TDP ticket. While the majority of the people residing under the Central constituency are employee class, the poor and middle class section contributes around 40 per cent located in Ajit Singh Nagar, Payakapuram, Satyanarayanapuram and other areas nearby.
While the tripartite alliance supported TDP candidate Bonda Umamaheshwara Rao contesting for the third time, West constituency MLA Velampalli Srinivasa Rao is taking on Bonda.
Velampalli Srinivasa Rao was shifted to Central from his home constituency, due to various reasons including the anti-incumbency factor.
While the voters with poor economic background, mainly daily wagers, always are leaning towards the party which gives them hope of the government support to make both ends meet, the employee and middle class section of people were clear in their mind to pour in support for the party which guarantees them employment generation and sustainable development in their lifestyle.
Bhagya Lakshmi, a resident of Ajit Singh Nagar, expressed her confidence that YSRC would come into power for the second time as Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s governance over the past five years brought changes in their lives.
On the other hand, Bhaskar Babu, a private employee, wanted the government to balance both welfare and development equally. “At a time when the middle-class section was suffering to lead a life with all the prices soaring up, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s schemes and governance only focused on one section. This is nothing but injustice,” he maintained.
The Vijayawada East constituency has an electoral strength of around 2.66 lakh, including 1.38 lakh women and 1.3 lakh men. The Assembly segment was once a stronghold for Congress party and later became a bastion for TDP and sitting MLA Gadde Ramamohan was elected twice in 2014 and 2019.
The majority of the people residing under the East constituency are business and employee class, while the poor and middle class section contribute around 30 percent located in Patamata, Gunadala, Ranigari Thota, Auto Nagar and Krishna Lanka.
The tripartite alliance supported Telugu Desam Party candidate Gadde Ramamohan contesting for the third time, the ruling YSRC fielded the 36-year-old Devineni Avinash against him. East constituency is one of the highly populated segments after the West constituency with more than 3.5 lakh population.
