Hyderabad: The Bhimavaram Assembly constituency has attracted wide attention as it is the stage from where actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan is contesting the April 11 election.
But the constituency has its own unique features. It has more women voters, but has never elected a woman except in 1944 in the combined Madras State in pre-Independence India.
But Mr Kalyan will be looking at another record that Bhimavaram holds. Its winner has always ended up in the ruling party except on one occasion. In 1952, a Praja Party won the seat but was in the Opposition. In 1967 Bhupathi Raju Vijayaku-mar Raju was elected as an independent but joined the Congress, then the ruling party.
Mr Kalyan hopes that the luck of Bhimavaram rubs off on him if he wins the seat on May 23.
In 1944 elections, Bhupathi Raju Bangaramma was elected from Bhimavaram and since then women have never represented the constituency.
With the demise of Vijayakumar Raju, the then MLA and former minister, byelections were held for the segment in 1994 and the Congress nominated his wife Kamlakantha Kasturi. She lost the election to the Telugu Desam nominee P. V. Narasimha Raju.
According to the Election Commission Bhimavaram has 2,29,334 voters including 1,12,836 men and 1,16,392 women.
In 2014 the constituency had 1,14,575 women voters, of whom 87,635 took part in the polling, recording a polling percentage of 76.48.
