One of the few assembly constituencies that have historically stood away from TDP is the Vijayawada West constituency. The last time TDP won this segment was back in 1983. Ever since, only CPM and Congress were winning this seat, barring 2009 when Vellampalli Srinivas won on the Prajarajyam ticket. Coming to the 2014 and 19 elections, this seat was won by YCP.
Now that the Telugu Desam, BJP and JSP alliance has formulated in AP, the equation looks favorable for the alliance in Vijayawada.
The alliance has fielded a financially super-sound candidate in Sujana Chowdary who also has strong local ties. He is being seen as a worthy alternative for the ruling party here. His financial backing and poll management skills must come to fray to swing the tide in its favor.
YCP has been changing its candidates in Vijayawada West every term – Jaleel Khan in 2014 and Vellampalli in 2019. Come 2024, it is Shaik Asif. So, no candidate has a firm grip on YCP’s behalf locally to ensure a smooth win.
Janasena’s Pothina Mahesh who polled 22,000 votes in the last election is with YCP now. If the vote transfer is smooth, then winning Vijayawada West again could be a possibility for YCP but the common talk is that the votes polled for Mahesh relied on the JSP platform but not Mahesh himself. The anti-incumbency is another factor.
Kesineni Nani is also raring to put in his best efforts for YCP’s win in Vijayawada West. But his significance is subject to change as he has moved out of TDP.
What is for certain is that Vijayawada West is certainly going to be a closely fought affair and whichever party comes with better election management can win the segment, albeit with a small margin. If Sujana Chowdary can win this segment, he will be the first TDP-affiliated person(alliance) to break the barrier after 40 long years, else, it will be the same story again.
