Ground Report: Bheemili- YSRC cadre bank on Vijayamma, Sharmila in Bheemili

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, April 25, 2014: While, YSRC, cadres are sitting pretty banking on charishma of YS Vijayamma and her daughter Sharmila who are expected to take up canvassing shortly, in Bheemili assembly segment, TD candidate, Ganta Srinivasa Rao is leaving no stone unturned and already hit the dusty roads, a week back, for campaigning.

It’s a new constituency for Ganta Srinivas Rao, who recently rejoined TD. He had earlier represented Anakapalle (2009), Chodavaram (2004) as MLA and as an MP from Anakapalle in 1999.

Bheemili was the second municipality in Indian mainland, established in 1861. 150-Years of its formation was celebrated in 2011. Geographically Bheemili is considered as one of the largest constituencies of the 15 assembly segments in the district. Padmanabham, Thagarapuvalasa, Bheemili and Anandapuram are the madals that come under Bheemili constituency.

 Bheemili comes under Vizag parliament segment and YSRC cadre seems to be banking on Vijayamma to bail out the party candidate. Vijayamma is YSRC Lok Sabha candidate. Election enthusiasm is visibly missing among YSRC leaders.

Streets in Bheemili, Anandapuram and Padmanabham mandals are seen packed with TD workers carrying party flags and campaign vehicles. It’s only the TD workers all the way. No YSRC leader is seen nowhere in the constituency.

It was in the last minute that YSRC chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy nominated former Congress MLA, Karri Seetaram, who joined in the eleventh hour, to contest from Bheemili. Jagan dropped, party ticket aspirant Korada Rajababu, who was nurturing the constituency since sometime. Rajababu, last year contested as an independent candidate and secured around 21,000 votes.

Now, YSRC cadres are eagerly waiting for Vijayamma to campaign. Contrary, Ganta Srinivas Rao has been burning midnight oil ever since his candidature was announced by the TD chief Chandrababu Naidu. He is touring no less than 20 villages in a day addressing dozens of meetings. In fact he was the first person to launch campaign among the other candidates. Daily his campaign begins as early as 7 in the morning.

“Our lives never change irrespective of any party or candidate comes to power. But this time we will see the candidate’s background and credibility and vote. What we need is affordable prices of essential commodities, drinking water and power,” said Sundaraiah, a carpenter in Anandapuram.

The TD candidate is also facing a rebel trouble in the constituency.  TD Lok Sabha aspirant, MNC, Kenexa Technologies, former director, Aneeta Sakuru is contesting as rebel- independent candidate. Aneeta’s husband Raghuveer Sakuru who also aspired Bheemili assembly ticket has done groundwork in the constituency for 2 years which was helping Aneeta in her campaign. She earlier vowed to defeat Ganta Srinivas Rao and it was the only aim she was in the fray.

Bheemili, which was proposed to be merged into GVMC, has also been an important issue among others. A G O in this regard was also issued last year. The merger is being opposed by locals and earlier Ganta Srinivas Rao, tried his best for the merger of both Anakapalle and Bheemili municipalities, stating it would help both the towns get more funds under JNNURM and change the face.

“Now that bifurcation is a reality we have to strive for the development of the state. And to do that Naidu in AP and Modi at Centre are the historic necessity. Residents in Bheemili are not at all getting pensions and other welfare schemes are not being implemented,” said Ganta Srinivasa Rao.