Ganta man wins DCCB chair

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Feb 19, 2013: The suspense over the DCCB chairman elections, was relieved finally on Tuesday. The candidate supported by ports and infrastructure minister, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, was  elected unanimously.

There were only two nominations — one by Yelamanchali MLA, Kannababu’s son Sukumar Varma and the other by Sunkari Giribabu, for the posts of chairman and vice-chief respectively.
With no one else in the fray, the election officer Praveena declared both the candidates elected unanimously in the presence of minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao.

Fissures in the district Congress, were out in the open again on Tuesday, as tribal welfare minister, P Balaraju, who was reportedly not in favour of Ganta Srininvasa Rao’s nominee Varma, kept away from the poll process at the DC-CB office in Marripalem.

Another strong aspirant to the DCCB post, DCC president, Karanam Dharma Sri’s nomination was rejected as the PACS he was representing announced a default.

After this Balaraju openly said that the party’s official candidate was not finalised by the leadership, hinting that he was not in favour of Varma.

It was widely speculated that the DCCB polls had turned into a turf war between Ganta and PCC  chief Botsa, who threw in his lot with Karanam Dharma Sri. Botsa is a  strong leader in this region belonging to the Viziangaram district.

After the merger with the PR, ports and infrastructure minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao emerged as  power centre with the backing of Chief Minister, the bête noire of the PCC chief.

It is widely known that Dharma Sri, who lost elections in 2009, was made DCC president only with the blessings of Botsa.