City headed for 4-cornered fight for LS seat; Sribharat to hold his ‘arangethram’ today

Visakhapatnam: The Port City is heading for a four-cornered contest between TDP, YSRC, Jana Sena and Congress in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, with the grandson of late MVVS

Murthi

, a two-time

Lok Sabha

member from Visakhapatnam, throwing his hat in the ring for the TDP ticket.

M

Sribharat

is the grandson of Murthi, who died in a road accident in Alaska, the US, in October 2018. Sribharat is holding his political ‘arangethram’ (coming-out party) here on Monday.

Identifying himself as an aspirant to the TDP party ticket, Sribharat has invited local TDP strongman and minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, along with six sitting MLAs from the parliamentary constituency, to the meeting. Though a source close to Sribharat claimed that Ganta Srinivasa Rao would be attending the meeting, it is unlikely that he will because the TDP is reportedly planning to field him for the city LS seat.

The sitting MP for Visakhapatnam, Kambhampati Haribabu of BJP ,is reportedly ambivalent about defending his seat. “There is still time to decide about contesting. Let the

election

notification be announced,” Haribabu told TOI on Sunday at a meeting called by the party to listen to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 53rd Mann Ki Baat.

YSRC has already decided its candidate for the city LS seat. “The party has confirmed that MVV Satyanarayana will be our candidate,” Malla Vijay Prasad, president of the city unit of YSRC said on Sunday. Satyanarayana is a prominent real estate developer in Visakhapatnam.

Vijay Prasad, who will be contesting the Visakhapatnam West seat in the AP legislative assembly said “Sribharat as a TDP candidate would be starting out with a disadvantage. The TDP won six of the seven assembly segments in the parliamentary constituency so he will have to contend with a huge anti-incumbency. On the other hand, Satyanarayana has a clean slate and this will work to our advantage.”

Jana Sena party founded by Pawan Kalyan, an actor-turned-politician, will be fielding a candidate, while T Subbarami Reddy a Rajya Sabha member is reported to have been offered the LS ticket in the city. “Reddy apparently told his party bosses that he will contest if the Congress has an electoral tie-up with TDP, which is unlikely after the debacle in Telangana in December,” a senior Congress leader said on condition of anonymity.

“The contest will essentially be between Sribharat or Ganta of TDP and Satyanarayana of YSRC though the Congress and Jana Sena will field their own candidates. The BJP is not a factor in the parliamentary election,” Vijay Prasad added.