Mathukumilli Sribharat of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) clinched victory in the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency, defeating Botsa Jhansi Lakshmi of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) with a margin of over five lakh votes.
Sribharat is the chairperson of GITAM institutions and son-in-law of actor and Hindupur TDP MLA N Balakrishna. Botsa Jhansi Lakshmi, a former Vizianagaram MP, is the wife of former Minister Botsa Satyanarayana.
Sribharat secured 9,07,467 votes, while 4,03,220 votes were polled for Jhansi Lakshmi. With a margin of 5,04,247 votes, Sribharat clinched the highest margin in the whole state.
P Satya Reddy of the Congress stood third in Visakhapatnam with 30,267 votes, followed by KA Pail of the Praja Shanti Party, who got 7696 votes.
Sribharat’s victory is crucial because although TDP has been winning Assembly segments in Visakhapatnam, it has not been able to win the Lok Sabha seat since 2004. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Sribharat lost to YSRCP’s MVV Satyanarayana by a narrow margin of 4000 votes in Visakhapatnam.
Issues such as the development of the capital city, infrastructure, and unemployment have been crucial poll issues this time. Outgoing CM YS Jagan proposed Visakhapatnam as the executive capital, and even declared that he would take oath as Chief Minister again from the port city. With its ‘Vision Visakhapatnam’ proposal, the Jagan government had promised infrastructure development such as an international airport, railways, and a metro line in the city, in an attempt to attract the voters of Visakhapatnam.
All the promises failed to yield any positive results for YSRCP in the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency and the seven assembly segments under it. YSRCP has suffered a terrible loss by only securing 11 assembly seats and four Lok Sabha seats.
Meanwhile, the TDP-BJP-JSP alliance won 164 of 175 assembly seats and 21 of 25 Lok Sabha seats. In the Assembly elections, TDP won 135 seats, the Janasena Party (JSP) secured 21 seats, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took eight seats. In the Lok Sabha elections, the TDP won 16 seats, the JSP took two seats, and the BJP secured three seats.
