YSRC going all out to win GVMC polls
With the campaign entering the last phase, YSRCP led by its Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Sai Reddy along with in-charge Minister K Kannababu and local Minister Avanti Srinivasa Rao, is way ahead of others
Visakhapatnam: YSR Congress Party appears the firm favourite to bag the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation and the mayoral post in the March 10 elections.
With the campaign entering the last phase during the weekend, YSRCP led by its Rajya Sabha member and north Andhra representative Vijay Sai Reddy along with in-charge Minister K Kannababu and local Minister Avanti Srinivasa Rao, is way ahead of others.
A close confidant of Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy ever since the party was founded, Vijay Sai is pulling all strings to ensure victory as the Vizag mayoral post has to be offered as a gift to Jagan. Towards this, he liberally allowed entry to leaders of other parties who queued up to join the ruling party in the State which left the main opposition –the Telugu Desam Party, as well as the BJP-Jana Sena Party, combine high and dry.
The situation was so pathetic for the TDP that its urban district president and Visakhapatnam South MLA Vasupalle Ganesh Kumar openly declared his support for the ruling party in the state a couple of months back, resulting in the exodus of his followers from TDP.
While the other TDP MLAs –Ganababu of Visakhapatnam West and Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu of Visakhapatnam East failed to impress upon the voters who are reaping the benefits of the state government welfare schemes, another MLA and former minister–Ganta Srinivasa Rao of Visakhapatnam North who had distanced himself from party activities for quite some time, also had not shown any interest in the civic polls till the last minute.
However, when the TDP president Chandrababu Naidu arrived last week for campaign, he made it a point to meet him and discuss with him the situation which is gloomy.
Chandrababu was also not convincing during his tour of the industrial belt of Gajuwaka in the steel plant area and when he blamed the YSRCP and the BJP for the proposed sale of Vizag steel plant, there were no takers.
The BJP whose chances looked vastly improved after alleged attacks on temples in the state, and thanks to the political alliance it forged with film star Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena Party, now is confronted with the steel plant privatisation issue. Added to this is the hike in price of petrol, diesel and LPG and there is no way it can come out of it before the elections.
A growing city, Visakhapatnam municipality was established in 1858. It became a corporation in the year 1979 and upgraded as Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation in 2005 with the merger of
Gajuwaka, and Bheemunipatnam and Anakapalle municipalities According the 2011 census figures, the population of the city was nearly 21 lakh and the number of wards initially increased from 50 to 72 and now to 98. In the last elections held to the GVMC in 2007, Pulusu Janardhana Rao of the Congress emerged as the city mayor.
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