YSR Congress has faced three General elections so far – 2014, 2019, and 2024. Vijayawada and Guntur Loksabha segments are the two seats where the party did not win even once. Even when Jagan’s wave gripped the state in 2019, the party could not open its account in these two seats.
After the recent elections, Kesineni Nani who contested as YSR Congress candidate in Vijayawada retired from politics.
Also Read – Why is Revanth Reddy Silent About The Gandhis?
Guntur MP contestant, Kilaru Venkata Rosaiah resigned from the party’s primary membership.
That means both these seats are without proper leadership in the YSR Congress.
Also Read – IT Hub to Come Up in Vizag’s Tarluvada
Vijayawada and Guntur Lok Sabha segments are strongholds of the Telugu Desam Party because of the Kamma community. But that does not mean the party is invincible here.
When it was TDP Vs Congress, the Congress Party was always able to make its mark in these two seats.
Also Read – Mithun Reddy Attends SIT Interrogation
After TDP’s inception, the Congress party was able to win Vijayawada Parliament four times in the eleven elections.
Congress won the Guntur Parliament six times in the eleven elections.
YSR Congress’s struggle in this area is because of various reasons.
Firstly, Congress never antagonized the Kamma Community like Jagan. He tried his level best to portray the community as a villain to other communities especially between 2014 to till date. We have seen Jagan having no Kamma representation in his cabinet for the first time in the history of Andhra Pradesh.
It was different during the YSR’s time. Congress used to have prominent Kamma leaders as many as in TDP.
Kamma Leaders like Parvathaneni Upendra, Lagadapati Rajagopal, the Chennupati Family, the Devineni family, NG Ranga, and Rayapati Sambasiva Rao used to be very active in Congress and got good respect in the party.
But this is not the case with the YSR Congress.
YSR Congress always depended on Parachute leaders. Koneru Rajendra Prasad, PVP, and Kesineni Nani were the YSR Congress candidates for Vijayawada in the last three elections. They were brought just before the election they he disappeared after the election.
This is the case with the Guntur Parliament as well. Vallabhaneni Balashowry, Modugula Venugopala Reddy, Kilari Venkata Rosaiah were the YSR Congress candidate. Jagan did not give the ticket to a Kamma at least once here. All these leaders disappeared after their defeat.
Now, once again the party is without proper leadership in both these seats.
One can be very sure that Jagan will not look for an alternative until just before the 2029 elections and the story will continue.
Meanwhile, It’s been not even two months after the election results and Vijayasai Reddy already started demonizing the Kamma caste.
Last week, we saw Y Rajiv Krishna, the Former Advisor in the Jagan Government ask Sai Reddy why he targets the caste when the issue is with individuals.
“Many of us Kammas are also members of @YSRCParty & served the party & @ysjagan garu – these types of comments make us feel like second class citizens in this party – is it your intention that no Kamma should be a member of #YSRCP or support it? If not then why such caste based comments? With your seniority, you know better than me that any political party can be successful only if all castes/religions/communities support it. This type of caste-based comments needs to stop or it will adversely affect the party,” he wrote.
There has been no response from Sai Reddy and the attack is still on.
That is an indication of how the YSR Congress will never change.
