Vijayawada: Considered to be quite politically aware, the Avanigadda Assembly segment in Krishna district, also called Diviseema, will see a triangular contest this election.
Sitting MLA and Assembly Deputy Speaker Mandali Buddha Prasad will be warding off the challenge from Simhadri Ramesh Babu of the YSRC and Muttamsetty Krishna Rao of the Jana Sena.
The Congress has chosen Ande Sriram Murthy as its candidate while G.V. Nagaraidu of the BJP candidate and Kanthamaneni Ravi Shankar of the Forward Bloc are also in the fray. Since five of these six candidates, expect Mr Ravi Shankar of the Forward Bloc, are from the Kapu community, voters say that their track record, and their party’s promises will swing the election in their favour.
The total voters in the constituency are 2,00,677, with women outnumbering the men at 1,00,489 voters, the male voters number 1,00,169 and there are 19 transgender.
Mr Buddha Prasad who won on Congress ticket in 1999 and 2004, and also served as a minister, joined the TD in 2014. He was defeated in 2009 and was made the chairman role of Adhikara Bhasha Sangham in the N. Kiran Kumar Reddy government.
In 2014, he won on a TD ticket, securing a majority of 5,800 votes against YSRC candidate Simhadri Ramesh Babu who has once again given the ticket.
Meanwhile, Mr Krishna Rao of Jana Sena is a well known politician and his wife Vijaya Nirmala Muttamsetty has worked as the Information Commissioner of AP. He also contested as a candidate of the now defunct Praja Rajyam from Nuzividu constituency.
The dominated caste in Avanigadda is Kapu with 69,876 voters while there are 36,608 SC voters, 25,322 fishermen, 19,100 Gowda voters, 10,564 Yadavas and 4,500 Vysya voters.
Curiously, the candidate who had managed to get the fishermen vote has won in this constituency. While a majority of SC voters lean towards the YSRC, Mr Buddha Prasad stint with the Congress has ensured that he has followers among the SC community.
While Mr Buddha Prasad is confident with the TD’s schemes and his personal impact on the constituency like bringing Nagayalanka boat festival etc will help him win, the YSRC and Jana Sena candidates are confident that their party’s poll promises will swing the verdict in their favour.
