Guntur West has great history of producing stalwarts

Guntur : Guntur is one of the towns in the state which is not only popular for red chillies, virginia tobacco, spinning and ginning mills, weaving units, cold storage and ITC Agri division but is also politically active and has given some of the most prominent leaders to the state.

Guntur West constituency had produced highly respected leaders like Chebrolu Hanumaiah, Kanna Lakshminarayana, Dr Sanakkayala Aruna, former speaker Nissankara Rao Venkatratnam.

There are other leaders like former chief ministers N T Rama Rao and Konijeti Rosaiah who studied in A C College and Hindu College. This is also the city which has prestigious colleges like Andhra Christian College and Andhra Muslim College displaying a perfect example of secularism. It also has the first tutorial college in the state which was set up by CV N Dhan and today it has headquarters of several corporate education institutions.

But despite having such glorious past, it is regrettable that the city continues to be in bad shape even 10 years after bifurcation. Internal roads do not exist. People complain that corruption is high in Guntur Municipal Corporation. Nothing moves without greasing the palms of officials. No new flyovers have been constructed to ease the woes of the city. Some hope was visible soon after bifurcation when real estate activity particularly the construction of apartments had increased manifold after Amravati was declared as the new capital of Andhra Pradesh. But the municipal authorities have failed to meet the drinking water needs and sanitation conditions in the city.

There are no APSRTC city bus services in Guntur city. As a result, workers working in Guntur mirchi yard, tobacco processing units, construction field, cold storage units, employees working in the private shops and establishments, private schools and corporate schools are face hurdles and are dependent on autos who charge as they like.

There are 2,65,130 voters in this constituency. Kapus, Kammas, BCs, Christians, SC, STs are the main vote banks in Guntur West Assembly constituency. The unique feature of this constituency is that it normally does not elect any candidate for the second time.

In 2014, former MP Modugula Venugopal Reddy was elected to the Assembly from Guntur West constituency. In the 2019 Assembly election, TDP candidate Maddali Giridhara Rao was elected. He later joined YSRCP. During the last nine Assembly elections, TDP fielded nine new candidates from this constituency.

BC candidates Chdalavada Jayaram Babu had represented this constituency in 1985 and 1989. Tadisetty Venkata Rao was elected in 2004 to the state Assembly on behalf of Congress party.

With the elections not very far off, the race for tickets in all the parties has begun. Kovelamudi Ravindra (Nani), NRI Mannava Mohan Krishna, TDP Guntur urban president Degala Prabhakar, Vuyyuru Srinivas, Dr Seshaiah are some of the prominent people in the race for tickets to contest from the Guntur West Assembly constituency.

Keeping in view fast changing political equations and anti-incumbency factor, minister for health Vidadala Rajini who was elected from Chilkaluripet Assembly constituency has now been shifted to Guntur West. Her husband belongs to the Kapu community. Taking this into consideration, the YSRCP is pinning hopes on Kapu votes as well as Reddy, BCs, SCs and Christian votes and feel that she would win from here in 2024 elections.