Vizag a close call last time, YSRCP banks on capital dreams, TDP sharpens local pitch

Underneath a veneer of calm and tranquillity, a fierce political battle rages on in the “city of destiny”.

With less than a week to go for polling in the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh in the fourth phase on May 13, Visakhapatnam, also known as Vizag, is seemingly divided between the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) that seems to have gained momentum since it allied with the Pawan Kalyan-led JanaSena Party (JSP) and the BJP.

The YSRCP, facing the anti-incumbency heat — it dropped over 60% of its 22 MPs and a quarter of its MLAs — has replaced its sitting MP M V V Satyanarayana with former Vizianagaram MP Botsa Jhansi Lakshmi, who is married to state minister Botsa Satyanarayana. The TDP has fielded the chairperson of GITAM institutions Mathukumilli Sribharat who is the son-in-law of actor and Hindupur TDP MLA N Balakrishna, one of the sons of TDP founder and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister. The TDP has not won the constituency since 1999 when Sribharat’s father and GITAM’s founder M V V S Murthi won it. This will be Sribharat’s second attempt at following in his father’s footsteps, having fallen short five years ago by 4,000 votes.

While the TDP holds four of the seven Assembly segments in Visakhapatnam — Visakhapatnam East, Visakhapatnam West, Visakhapatnam North, and Visakhapatnam South — three are with the YSRCP (Bheemli, Gajuwaka and Srungavarapukota).

In the absence of national issues, the poll narrative here is very much localised. Around 20 km from the city, in the town of Gajuwaka where the Vizag Steel Plant is located, V Sree Lakshmi waits for a bus along with her family. “The schemes of the state government help