It is surprising to see the courage of the YCP to have high hopes on Visakhapatnam. The port city has never been so friendly to the YSR family. Vijayamma was defeated in the MP election here. The 2019 election saw a total rout of the ruling party in all the four MLA seats in the State’s commercial city. However, the Jagan-Vijay Sai duo are setting their sights on winning the elections to the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC).
Vijay Sai Reddy and Minister Avanti Srinivas have been holding meetings at ward level. This has triggered rumours that the GVMC poll notification is expected sooner than later. The YCP has indeed used its regular threats, intimidations and inducements to win over some TDP leaders and cadres in the port city in the past two years. But, the general public are largely not so happy considering the LG Polymers gas leakage and such tragedies still fresh in their memory.
What more, the decades-old demand for the Vizag Railway Zone was still an unfulfilled dream. Even the latest Union Budget has no mention of this. In the past, the TDP MPs at least waged an agitation and got the Centre to announce the South Coastal Railway Zone in Vizag. But the same was still pending. Though the YCP has got 28 MPs, it is not able to bring enough pressure on the Centre for such demands. The Vizag Steel Plant is also thrown open for privatisation.
