Senior Telugu Desam Party legislator and former minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao is learnt to have had the last laugh in his fight for getting the party ticket for Bheemili assembly constituency in Visakhapatnam district in the ensuing assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.
Ganta, who presently represents Visakhapatnam (north), has been bringing pressure on party president N Chandrababu Naidu to shift him to Bheemili this time, as his present seat is being allocated to the Bharatiya Janata Party as part of alliance.
However, Naidu wanted him to go to Cheerpuripalli in the neighbouring Vizianagaram district to fight against state minister and YSR Congress party leader Botsa Satyanarayana, but Ganta flatly refused the proposal.
While he is not interested in fighting against Botsa with whom he has good business relations, Ganta said he would not like to leave Visakhapatnam and go to a place, which is more than 150 km away.
He was stubborn on contesting from Bheemili against former minister Avanti Srinivas.
But since Bheemili was allotted to Jana Sena as part of seat sharing, Naidu was in a sort of fix. At one stage, there were reports that if Naidu does not oblige his request, he would quit the party and join Jana Sena to contest from Bheemili.
However, according to latest reports, the Jana Sena Party has not been able to find a suitable candidate to fight against Avanti Srinivas. Though Pawan Kalyan identified two candidates, but they are not sure of winning the seat.
So, Pawan Kalyan reportedly asked Naidu to take the Bheemili seat and allot another seat to the Jana Sena Party in Visakhapatnam. This has come as a great relief to Naidu, as he can now give it to Ganta.
Apparently, even TDP Lok Sabha candidate for Visakhapatnam M Bharat also requested Naidu to allot Bheemili seat to Ganta, so that it would make the things easy for him in the Lok Sabha elections.
So, finally, Ganta is all set to contest from Bheemili!
