Araku Constituency: While YSRCP To Retain Power, Ex-MP Kothapalli Geetha Aims To Dethrone Them (image:twitter.com/ECISVEEP)One of Andhra Pradesh’s 25 Lok Sabha seats, Araku, is prepared to host the contest between the three major political parties; the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), the NDA, and the INDIA Alliance. YSRCP has already demonstrated strength and confidence through the previous electoral win in the constituency. According to the statistics of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the YSRCP has a strong lead in each of the seven assembly segments comprising the Araku constituency, namely, Palakonda (ST), Kurupam (ST), Parvathipuram (SC), Salur (ST), Araku Valley (ST), Paderu (ST), and Rampachodavaram (ST). As a result, Goddeti Madhavi of the YSRCP was elected with a 54.7 percent vote share. Additionally, YSRCP MLAs govern each of the seven assembly seats.
The Araku seat is designated as a reserved constituency for Scheduled Tribes (ST) under the Delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies Order (2008).
This time, unlike the previous elections, the candidates are well-known and equally powerful. Over the course of this time, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), led by N. Chandrababu Naidu, the Jana Sena Party (JSP), led by Pawan Kalyan, and the BJP have combined to form the NDA alliance, which has grown significantly stronger in the state and has now possess the capacity to beat the YSRCP in the upcoming assembly election as well as regain the majority of seats in the Lok Sabha.
The YSRCP is fielding Dr. Chetti Thanuja Rani, daughter-in-law of Araku Valley MLA Chetti Phalguna. She obtained her medical undergraduate degree from the International School of Medicine at the International University of Kyrgyzstan. She is a resident of Hukumpeta Mandal in the ASR region, where she worked as an epidemiologist. She is also new to the field of electoral politics.
Despite the dispute over seats among the INDIA alliance members, the candidacy in Araku went to Pachipenta Appala Narasa from CPI (M). He worked as an AP Girijana Sangham national executive member, an affiliate of the CPI (M), which works exclusively for tribals and their rights.
Rama Rao Dora, the state convenor of the joint action committee of Adivasi unions, expresses concern over the candidature of Kothapalli Geetha, the BJP candidate for the Araku, accusing that she does not belong to the ST community. Also, he added, they’ll fight against the JSP and TDP if she is competing from Araku, alleging that she is always against the Adivasis and also suggesting her active role in facilitating bauxite mining in the region.
It will not be that easy for Kothapalli Geetha, former deputy collector, to win the seat this time. Though she won the 2014 Lok Sabha election on the YSRCP ticket, later she distanced herself from the party, forming a new party, the Jana Jagruti Party, in 2018, and allied with the BJP. All these factors can cause chaos among the voters. Though, her candidacy remains a question of her political survival.
Kothapalli Geetha, in an interview with the New Indian Express in Visakhapatnam, expressed that the alliance is working wonderfully, and they aim to dethrone the ‘ten-headed Ravanasura’ and dismantle his ‘monarchy’, hinting at YSRCP chief Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The Lok Sabha election in Araku is scheduled for May 13.
(This story is part of a Timeline. internship project.)