A big fight is on the cards in Vijayawada as three stalwarts are in the fray for Vijayawada Lok Sabha seat. All eyes are riveted to this seat as the fight is going to be fought keenly between sitting MP Lagadapati Rajagopal and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) candidate Vallabhaneni Vamsimohan. PRP candidate Chanumolu Rajiv is also expected to give a fight for both Rajagopal and Vamsi.
Rajagopal set up a party office four months ago at Benz Circle and started making strategic moves. He is ahead of his rivals as far as campaigning is concerned.
Vamsi started his campaign from Wednesday, while Praja Rajyam Party is yet to kick start its campaign. Vamsi, who had been fighting for Gannavaram seat till the last moment finally settled for Vijayawada Lok Sabha seat.
His being new to the city, except relations with Gadde Rammohan, clean image and smiling face are plus points for him. He already clinched full support of other leaders and attracted the attention of the youth. Gannavram political developments also would go in his favour.
Rajagopal entered the political arena in 2004 as the son-in-law of Parvathaneni Upendra and as a big industrialist. He promised the voters to make the city another Venice. But much water flowed down under Krishna Barrage since then. He attracted the dissidence during the selection of candidates and now rebels are giving him sleepless nights. Still he is confident of his victory and claims that he would win by a margin not less than two lakh. But there are few takers for his claim in his own party.
In 2004 elections he secured two thirds of majority votes from the city alone. He secured 35,000 votes majority in Vijayawada West, 30,000 in Kankipadu and 25,000 in Vijayawada East. Of his1.14 lakh majority votes, as much as 90,000 votes he secured from the city segments. Now Kankipadu has been removed and newly-carved Penamaluru has been merged with Machilipatnam Lok Sabha segment.
The advent of Praja Rajyam Party further dented his vote bank as 80 per cent of them would vote for PRP candidates. Though BJP, Lok Satta and BSP are in the fray, the fight is mainly among Congress, TDP and PRP.
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