Sitting MLAs have been retained in most of the Assembly constituencies in the combined Visakhapatnam district, as per the final MLA candidates list announced by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, on March 16. There were no surprises in the list, as most of the candidates were already being appointed as the constituency in-charges and were busy campaigning in the constituencies.
Coming to Visakhapatnam, as expected, Visakhapatnam MP M. V. V. Satyanarayana will be contesting for Visakhapatnam East MLA seat as the YSRCP candidate against the sitting Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLA Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu, who was also announced as the candidate. YSRCP leader Adari Anand will be contesting from Visakhapatnam West AC. It may be remembered that Adari Anand had contested as Anakapalli MP candidate for the TDP in the previous elections in 2019. He will have to face siting MLA P.G.V.R. Naidu alias Gana Babu from the TDP.
The YSRCP has allotted South AC ticket to the TDP rebel MLA Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar and North AC ticket to NREDCAP Chairman K. K. Raju. The TDP-JSP-BJP alliance are yet to announce candidates in these two ACs.
IT Minister Gudivada Amarnath who had won from Anakapalli as MLA in the last elections will be contesting from Gajuwaka Assembly constituency (AC) this elections. The TDP has already fielded former MLA Palla Srinivasa Rao as its candidate in this constituency.
Sitting MLAs A. Adeep Raju and Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao (Avanthi Srinivasa Rao) were announced as the YSRCP candidates from Pendurthi and Bheemunipatnam, respectively.
Anakapalli AC in-charge M. Bharat was confirmed as the YSRCP MLA candidate and he will be facing Jana Sena Party (JSP) candidate and senior leader Konathala Ramakrishna. Sitting MLAs Budi Mutyala Naidu (Madugula), Karanam Dharmasri (Chodavaram), U. Venkata Ramanamurthy Raju (Kannababu Raju) of Yelamanchali, Petla Umashankar Ganesh (Narsipatnam) have retained in their ACs. The TDP has already fielded Ayyanna Patrudu from Narsipatnam AC, Pyla Prasad from Madugula AC and K. S. N. S. Raju from Chodavaram AC as its candidates, it may be noted, while the candidate for Yelamanchali is yet to be announced.
Rajam sitting MLA Kambala Jogulu will be contesting as Payakaraopeta as YSRCP candidate in this elections. He will be facing former TDP MLA V. Anitha. The YSRCP has also announced Regam Matsyalam as its candidate for Araku AC and Matsyaraju Visweswara Raju for Paderu AC.
Ms. Botcha Jhansi Lakshmi, wife of Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana, was confirmed as the MP candidate from Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha. However the YSRCP high command is yet to announce the candidate for Anakapalli Lok Sabha candidate and has kept it as a suspense.
