Going against its own trend of nominating all sitting MLAs and in-charges in the district in the elections, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has ignored Gannavaram sitting MLA Dasari Balavardhana Rao. He is the party’s lone sitting MLA in the district whose candidature has been set aside.
TDP former urban president Vallabhaneni Vamsi, who contested from the Vijayawada Lok Sabha seat in 2009, has been named the party’s nominee from the Gannavaram Assembly constituency.
Mr. Rao was evidently upset over the development. “I explained the situation to party president N. Chandrababu Naidu. I also came to know about the development through newspapers,” he said.
Both Mr. Vamsi and Mr. Rao were at loggerheads ever since the former was moved out from Gannavaram Assembly constituency in last elections (2009) and directed to contest from Vijayawada LS constituency. Mr. Vamsi recently came out of virtual hibernation after he lodged a complaint with DGP Prasada Rao alleging that he faced a threat to his life from Inspector-General of Police P. Sitaramanjaneyulu. This was perceived as an indication that Vamsi was keen on getting back into mainstream politics.
At the same time, Mr. Vamsi’s followers also spread the word that the party was looking at him as the potential candidate for the Gannavaram seat. This triggered an exchange of animated statements between him and Mr. Balavardhana Rao. The TDP, so far, has cleared the decks for Jaggaiahpet MLA Sriram Rajagopal (Tataiah), Nandigama MLA Tangirala Prabhakar, Mylavaram MLA Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, Machilipatnam in-charge Kollu Ravindra, Pamarru in-charge Varla Ramaiah, Machilipatnam MP Konakalla Narayana, while Nallagatla Swami Das has been named to contest from Tiruvur.
