Vijayawada: Potluri Veera Prasad, a business magnate popularly known as PVP, lost the Vijayawada Lok Sabha seat despite the huge swing in favour of the YSR Congress in Vijayawada. The seat is very important in AP politics as it is related to the state’s political capital.
Mr Prasad was defeated by Telugu Desam MP Kesineni Srinivas by 8,720 votes.
YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy gave the Bapatla ticket to Nandigam Suresh who had no political or wealthy connections, but he won the election, benefitting from the Jagan-YSRC swing but despite having all resources Mr Prasad was defeated.
There were 4,579 postal ballots in Vijayawada constituency. At the counting, Mr Prasad’s start was good as he got a lead in the postal ballots with 2,598 votes against the TD’s 1,569 votes. Some 12,58,884 votes were cast in Vijayawada parliamentary constituency in which the TD got 5,66,666 votes and YSRC got 5,58,301 votes.
The YSRC cadres are surprised at Mr Prasad’s defeat, as he is very popular. They are now blaming poor poll management, cross voting, failure to use the Jagan Mohan Reddy and YSRC image and lack of coordination for the loss.
The YSRC won 14 Assembly seats out of 16 in Krishna district and the Machilipatnam Lok Sabha seat but lost Vijayawada.
A senior YSRC leader said that Mr Prasad was a native of Vijayawada who was successful as an investor, entrepreneur and film producer, but he failed to make political strategies on par with the TD.
The YSRC leader said that corporate management does not suit politics and political leaders have to go according to the needs and wishes of the public. Krishna and Guntur districts are bastions of the Kamma community which is why Mr Prasad got the ticket, but he did not take the support of own community and other supporting groups.
The leader said that the swing in favour of Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy was massive as many little-known candidates won the election, carried forward by the Jagan tsunami, but PVP totally failed to take the YSRC manifesto, aims, and objects to the voters. Moreover, when Telugu Desam MP Srinivas made a scathing attack on PVP, mentioning his court cases, PVP failed to give fitting reply during the campaign which also helped the TD.
Thiruvuru, Vijayawada West, Vijayawada Central, Vijayawada East, Mylavaram, Nandigama and Jaggayyapeta Assembly constituencies come under the Vijayawada parliamentary constituency and the YSRC won all the Assembly seats barring one, Vijayawada East. YSRC leaders say cross voting registered in various places was responsible for this and PVP failed to coordinate with the leaders to restrain cross voting.
