Northern AP sees three hattricks, turns out to be slippery ground for 4 mins

Visakhapatnam: In an election of changing fortunes, northern Andhra Pradesh saw three candidates scoring a hattrick by winning from their bastions for the third time in a trot. While TDP’s Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu salvaged some pride for his party by winning the Visakhapatnam East assembly constituency for the third time, Rajanna Dora Peedika did it for YSRC from Salur. On the other hand, Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao of YSRC won from Bheemili assembly seat for the second time. In 2014, he was a TDP MP from Anakapalli.

Ramakrishna Babu, a member of the Kamma community, won against Vamsi Krishna Srinivas in 2009 and 2014. In 2019, YSRC fielded Akaramani Vijaya Nirmala from Visakkha East constituency but Ramakrishna Babu could still not be defeated. The sitting MLA got more than 50% votes.

In 2009, Rajanna Dora Peedika (then from Congress) defeated his opponent Gummidi Sandhya Rani of TDP by a low margin of 1,656 votes. In 2014, Rajanna Dora joined YSRC and won against his TDP opponent by a small margin of 4,997 votes again. This time around, however, he defeated his nearest opponent Rajendra Pratap Bhanj Deo by more than 20,000 votes.

Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao started his political career with Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) in 2009 and was elected from Bheemili constituency by a majority of 6,310 votes. In 2014, Srinivasa Rao joined TDP and was elected from Anakapalle Lok Sabha seat by a majority of 47,932 votes.

There were others who missed out on a hattrick chance. Chodavaram’s two-time MLA KSN Raju, lost to YSRC’s Karanam Dharmasri. Similarly, Yelamanchili’s TDP MLA Panchakarla Ramesh Babu failed to win against YSRC’s UVR Raju (Kanna Babu).

Election fortunes were not very good for four of six

ministers

in north Andhra and one of the two government whips.

TDP AP president Kala Venkatrao (Etcherla) government whip Kuna Ravi Kumar (Amudalavalasa), Sujay Krishna Ranga Rao (Bobbili), Ch Ayyanna Patrudu (Narsipatnam) and Kidari Sravan Kumar (Araku Valley) lost the polls. Ministers Kinjarpu Acchennaidu and Ganta Srinivasa Rao managed to snatch victory in keen battle.

While Ganta Srinivasa Rao won from Visakhapatnam North, even after changing his constituency, six-time MLA Ayyanna Patrudu faced a stunning defeat at the hands of P Uma Shankar Ganesh. Kuna Ravi Kumar was defeated by his maternal uncle former minister Tammineni Sitaram.