Will Vallabhaneni Vamsi weather the storm in Gannavaram YSRCP?

GANNAVARAM: Gannavaram is one of the Assembly constituencies that is likely to keep the ruling YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh on a knife's edge before the 2024 general elections. The party confronts a peculiar scenario as the sitting MLA Vallabhaneni Vamsi Mohan, who switched his loyalties from the TDP to the YSRCP, is facing stiff opposition from two prominent local leaders.

As a result, the YSRCP is virtually split into three camps which seem to operate at their own whims, robbing the ruling party of a united show here. Vamsi, who has been a thorn in the flesh for the TDP, more so for its chief Chandrababu Naidu, made his pro-Jagan leanings public about a year ago. Though the YSRCP found Vamsi's rebellion against the TDP heartening, the development shook up equations within the party in Gannavaram and only compounded its headaches further.

Vamsi, a two-time legislator from here, defeated YSRCP's Yarlagadda Venkat Rao in the 2019 Assembly elections. Ever since the MLA ditched the TDP and embraced – unofficially though – the ruling party, Venkat Rao has been struggling to breathe easy. He knows the direct ramifications of this move which can cripple his political future within the party. As soon as Vamsi's intentions became clear, Venkat Rao was the first to voice his displeasure. And, in a feeble attempt, he even appealed to the party leadership against Vamsi's so-called entry into the party, citing alienation of Vamsi baiters from the party.

But his concerns simply got swept away in the party's eagerness to look at the larger picture and deal a death blow to the TDP across the state. Venkat Rao has been a sulking soul since then despite reports of assurance from party chief and Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy that his interests would be fully taken care of.

Vamsi also faces trouble from another camp led by prominent leader by Dutta Ramachandra Rao. He too contested unsuccessfully against Vamsi in the 2014 Assembly elections. Now with the TDP legislator firmly in the ruling party's grasp, Ramachandra Rao too is worried about his political future. This very factor brought both Venkat Rao and Ramachandra Rao closer to give Vamsi the run for his money in the constituency.

The two, in fact, carried out a no-holds-barred campaign against Vamsi sometime back, trying to corner the sitting legislator for his alleged failure in containing the earth-moving mafia in and around Gannavaram. But the tensions seemed to have cooled down after a bit of fire-fighting by the party leadership which wanted to broker peace and bring in synergy between the warring factions.

However, the events organised on September 2 to mark the death anniversary of Dr YSR once again exposed the deep divide and lack of cohesion among the three camps. The fact that the three camps moved in their own directions and organised memorials separately is certain to make the party leadership hold its head in disgust.

While Vamsi attended several programmes in Nunna village, Dutta Ramachandra Rao caused flutters by joining Congress workers in unveiling a bronze statue of YSR in Ampapuram. The move quickly raised suspicions that the leader was more concerned about his electoral fortunes and hence could be joining the Congress party fold before the 2024 polls. An exuberant assertion by a former minister during the recently-held YSRCP plenary meeting that Vamsi would be the party candidate from Gannavaram next time appeared to have come in as the last nail on the coffin for Dutta.

Needless to say, this will further put the YSRCP leadership at its wits end to act in time and diffuse any such situation. Given the bitterness of the infighting here, the party knows only too well how any desertions of this magnitude can tilt the scales and hurt its prospects. It surely has a fine balancing act to play and pull off a ceasefire of sorts for the immediate future and establish unity before the hustings.

Yarlagadda Venkat Rao, on the other hand, appears to be lying low for the moment, largely due to his indifferent health. He could be using this time to regroup and sharpen his strategies to stake his claim once again on the party ticket at a later stage.

But amidst all this, it is the party cadre that seem to be nonplussed, unable to figure out what is in YS Jagan's mind and who would he eventually favour as the party's candidate from Gannavaram.