Kakinada: Anxiety prevails over the candidature of the Pithapuram Assembly constituency from the Jana Sena party. Will Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan contest from the constituency or not is the question. The present MLA S.V.S.N.Varma is an aspirant for the Telugu Desam and the former MLA Pendem Dorababu is also an aspirant and the constituency coordinator for the YSR Congress.
According to sources, Jana Sena chief Mr Pawan Kalyan, during his tour in Pithapuram, expressed his willingness to contest from Pithapuram constituency, but made it clear that the party election committee would decide. After this, many interested leaders are backing out.
Sources said that Mr Varma could not get the TD ticket from Pithapuram constituency in the 2014 elections as the party gave the ticket to another candidate Pothula Venkata Viswam. Mr Varma contested from the constituency as an independent, won in the elections with a bumper majority and later joined the TD. However, it is said that there is a lot of opposition to Mr Varma due to his behavior for past five years.
He changed his tune in the matter of the Kakinada Special Economic Zone, behaved adamantly towards government employees, aided in the demolition of guest houses constructed by some donors previously for the Kukkuteswara Swamy devasthanam. However, he succeeded in getting the Purushottam-patnam lift irrigation scheme and other projects and is confident of winning again in the 2019 elections.
YSRC candidate Pendem Dorababu who represented the constituency as MLA during 2004 to 2009 is sticking to the constituency for the past five years, though he was defeated in the 2014 elections. His followers feel that there is a wave of YSRC chief Mr Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy. Meanwhile, former MLA Vanga Githa toured the constituency recently though there is criticism that she neglected the constituency for five years.
