If the YSR Congress party could successfully grab Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation in the just concluded elections with a comfortable majority, the entire credit goes only to party general secretary and parliamentary party leader V Vijay Sai Reddy.
For, the main opposition Telugu Desam Party has pulled out all stops to win the GVMC elections to prove that the people of Visakhapatnam are not interested in the shifting of administrative capital from Amaravati.
The TDP has four MLAs within GVMC limits and of them, two MLAs are virtually not with the party – Vasupalli Ganesh from Visakhapatnam (South) joined the YSRC and Ganta Srinivasa Rao from Vizag (north) did not take part in the electioneering.
But the other two TDP MLAs are still very influential – P G V R Naidu alias Gana Babu from Visakhapatnam (West) and Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu from Visakhapatnam (East). And the TDP has strong cadre base in the GVMC, including these four constituencies.
Yet, Sai Reddy took it up very prestigiously to win the GVMC for the party. While he focussed mostly on the constituencies dominated by the TDP, he left the other constituencies in the port city to his party leaders.
It was here that the party leaders, including seniors, who are not happy with Sai Reddy’s growing influence in Visakhapatnam, made every effort to sabotage the party victory.
While the YSRC could win divisions in the TDP-dominated areas, the party suffered defeat in parts of its own strongholds like Bhimili, Visakhapatnam (South) etc. Many of the party seniors did not cooperate with him in the elections.
However, Sai Reddy played a very shrewd game with the help of agriculture minister K Kanna Babu, who was made in-charge minister for Vizag and other supporters.
In the final tally, the YSRC managed to win 58 seats, while the TDP ended up with 30, which is also a very impressive figure, in the 98-member GVMC.
“But for Sai Reddy’s hard work, the YSRC would not have won the GVMC. He knew if the YSRC is defeated in Vizag, he will have to move out of the city,” a party source said.
