Constituency where celebrities lose, commoners triumph

Rajamahendravaram: Rajahmundry Lok Sabha constituency was formed in 1952. At present, this constituency comprises of Rajahmundry City, Rajahmundry Rural, Anaparthi, Rajanagaram, Kovvur, Gopalapuram, and Nidadavolu Assembly segments of East Godavari district.

Kovvur and Gopalapuram SC constituencies from erstwhile West Godavari district are also in this Lok Sabha constituency. They have about 20 lakh voters, the rural population in this constituency constitutes 70 per cent. Literate voters are 65 per cent.

This constituency has a rare distinction of celebrities losing and ordinary people winning. Congress leader Durgabai Deshmukh was defeated here in the first election (1952). Nalla Reddy Naidu from the Communist Party won against her. Celebrities like film actors Jamuna, Krishnam Raju, Murali Mohan and industrialist MVVS Murthy suffered defeat. But later Jamuna and Murali Mohan won once each.

Colonel DS Raju won three consecutive elections (1957, 1962 and 1967) as MP from Rajahmundry Parliament constituency. SBP Pattabhirama Rao (1971, 1977 and 1980) also registered hat-trick victories.

After the formation of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the party fielded Kamma candidates in all the 10 elections. Only three of them won. But as per the TDP, it is traditionally a Kamma seat.

Vundavalli Arun Kumar created history by becoming the only MP to win twice after 1984. He won on behalf of the Congress. He also defeated stalwarts like Murali Mohan and Krishnam Raju.

Colonel D S Raju (1962-66), S B P Pattabhirama Rao (1980-84) and S B P B K Satyanarayana Rao (1999-2001) served as Union Ministers from here. Among them, Pattabhirama Rao and Satyanarayana Rao are brothers. Similarly, Chundru Srihari Rao (1984-89) won as an MP here for TDP, and Chitturi Ravindra (1996-98) won from Congress, they are co-brothers.

In 2019, YSRCP made an experiment by fielding Margani Bharat Ram as the BC candidate and he had emerged victorious. However, This time the ruling party is searching for a new candidate as Margani Bharat has been shifted to Rajahmundry City Assembly constituency.

Dr Guduri Srinivas from the Settibalija community was

proposed for the MP seat by Bharat and other leaders. However, the party felt that the MP candidate should be selected from another caste because Rajahmundry City and Rural have already been allotted to Settibalija Gowda candidates. Two others who are seeking MP seats from the YSRCP also belong to this community, so the chances are very low. Efforts are being made to make film director V V Vinayak, who belongs to the Kapu caste, contest from Rajahmundry.

From TDP the names under consideration are Avanti Feeds Indra Kumar, NRI veteran Mandalapu Ravikumar and former MP Kambhampati Rammohana Rao. However, TDP sources feel that there may be some indirect understanding with BJP if the BJP State president D Purandeswari contests from here.

Initially, she wanted to contest from Visakhapatnam. However, since GVL Narasimha Rao is keen to contest from there she has opted for Rajahmundry as a safe seat.