Will Vangaveeti stay in TDP?

There is a big question mark on the faces of the supporters of former MLA Vangaveeti Radha Krishna in Vijayawada politics. He is understood to have made up his mind to contest the 2024 elections and win.

He is determined to contest from the Vijayawada central constituency, from where he won in 2000 elections when the seat was recognised as the Vijayawada east constituency. His father late Vangaveeti Mohana Ranga and his mother Vangaveeti Rathna Kumari have won from this seat on the Congress ticket. Ranga died as sitting MLA in 1988. In the subsequent by-election Rathna Kumari won the seat. She also contested in the 1998 election for the Congress but left the party later and joined the TDP. She did not contest any election later.

Even Radha too had won this seat on the Congress ticket in 2004 with the support of Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy. However, by 2009, he left the Congress and joined the Praja Rajyam Party of Chiranjeevi and lost the battle.

Then Radha went to the YSR Congress and contested from the Vijayawada East Assembly constituency in the 2014 election. He lost the battle to the TDP’s Gadde Ramamohan Rao. After the 2014 defeat, he left the party in 2018 and joined the TDP. However, he did not contest the 2019 general election.

This time, he is firm on contesting the election and is looking at the Vijayawada central assembly constituency. Sources say that the TDP is not ready to give him this seat for various reasons and had asked him to move to Machilipatnam Lok Sabha constituency in Krishna district.

However, sources say that neither he nor his supporters are prepared for the Lok Sabha elections. He is firmly asking for the Assembly seat from the Central Assembly constituency. If the TDP is not willing to give him the ticket, he plans to join the Jana Sena and get the ticket. But this may not happen as there is a big talk that the TDP and the Jana Sena would have an electoral tie-up and the Vijayawada central assembly seat would go to the TDP in the alliance.

In such a situation, he would be left with the option of the YSR Congress, where he has good friends like Kodali Nani and Vallabhaneni Vamsi. But here too, there is no guarantee that Jagan Mohan Reddy would give him the Vijayawada central assembly seat.

Given this situation, it is interesting to watch the next move of this one-time MLA, who has a considerable following, particularly among the Kapus and weaker sections in Vijayawada.