Ganababu Sets Sights on a Hat-Trick in Visakha West Constituency for Elections 2024

Established after the delimitation exercise in 2008, the Visakhapatnam West constituency is one of the Assembly segments where the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) holds sway in 2024. The party won the seat even in the 2019 elections, during which the Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) almost made a clean sweep by winning 151 seats, out of 175.

Pethakamsetti Gana Venkata Reddy Naidu of TDP-  popularly known as Ganababu – retained the seat in the 2019 elections by defeating Malla Vijaya Prasad of YSRCP by a comfortable majority of over 18,000 votes. In the earlier election (2014), he trounced Dadi Ratnakar of YSRCP by a margin of over 30,000 votes. With back-to-back victories, the 54-year-old Ganababu now sets his sights on a hat-trick. As the party has already finalised his candidature for the seat, the leader’s campaign vehicle has hit the road, reaching out to voters in the constituency.

Keen on halting the wining spree of the sitting MLA, the ruling YSRCP seems to be leaving no stone unturned in its effort to wrest the seat from the TDP.

Pinning high hopes on the welfare schemes being implemented by its government, the YSRCP has launched a campaign on a big scale in the segment. With a firm resolve to keep the party flag high in the constituency, YSRCP has picked Adari Anand Kumar, Chairman of Visakha Dairy – a strong candidate in North Andhra – to field against Ganababu.

Anand Kumar is the son of Visakha Dairy’s founder, Adari Tulasi Rao. After unsuccessfully contesting the Anakapalle Lok Sabha seat on the TDP ticket in the 2019 elections, he switched loyalties and donned the YSRCP ‘kanduva’ in the same year.

Also the Chairman of AP MSME Development Corporation, Anand Kumar is going door to door to drum up the voter support and upset the apple cart of the TDP MLA.

Dominated by the Gavara community, the Visakhapatnam West constituency, with a voter strength of 2,77,904, is all set for an interesting ballot battle in the 2024 elections. Meanwhile, the Visakha East constituency is also considered to be a stronghold of TDP in light of the outcomes of past elections.

This article is written by Senior Journalist Lakkoju Nagesh Babu