Gudivada stands out as a special constituency in Andhra Pradesh since former Chief Minister and TDP founder N.T. Rama Rao won twice from here, in 1983 and 1985. Therefore, he is closely associated with this commercial town near his birthplace Nimmakuru village.
Another notable aspect of the constituency is that Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao, alias Nani, has won the last four elections from here. While he won the 2004 and 2009 elections on a TDP ticket, he contested on a YSRCP ticket in 2014 and 2019.
He is now taking on TDP candidate Venigandla Ramu, an NRI businessman from the U.S. who is pitching himself as a worthy alternative to Nani. He says that the sitting MLA did nothing for the constituency except act as a mouthpiece of the YSRCP and make scurrilous attacks on the opposition leaders, especially N. Chandrababu Naidu and his family.
Gudivada is one of the seven Assembly segments in the Machilipatnam Lok Sabha constituency, all of which were won by the YSRCP in 2019.
NTR impact
The constituency was the stronghold of the Congress and CPI till the 1978 elections. The picture had undergone a dramatic transformation with the ‘arrival on stage’ of NTR, who established the TDP in 1982 and went on to make his mark the very next year.
TDP candidates Raavi Sobhanaadri Chowdary and his sons Hari Gopal and Venkateswara Rao won the elections in 1994, 1999, and 2000, respectively. After that, the tide had turned in favour of Mr. Nani, who now eyed a fifth straight victory. In between, i.e., in 1989, the Congress party won the elections.
Nani’s winning streak
Nani grew personally from strength to strength after joining the YSRCP in 2012 and is quite confident of keeping up the winning streak. He mainly bases his party’s welfare agenda on what Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has done for the masses since 2019.
On the other hand, Ramu seems to pin his hopes of victory on his party’s alliance with the BJP and JSP.
Decisive votes
Both candidates belong to the affluent Kamma community, which has a sizable presence alongside the Backward Classes and Scheduled Castes.
Since the agriculture and allied sectors primarily drive the local economy, how the farmers vote is also bound to be decisive.
In essence, the battle is going to be quite vicious as the TDP desperately looks to bring back its glory days by duly harping on NTR’s image, while Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy is equally bent on keeping this seat in the YSRCP fold.
Ramu has been highlighting the poor civic infrastructure as Nani’s failure, and the Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s anti-people policies and actions.
