If reports coming from the Telugu Desam Party camp are to be believed, Lagadapati Ashrit, elder son of former Vijayawada MP Lagadapati Rajagopal will contest the next assembly elections from Gannavaram to take on sitting MLA Vallabhaneni Vamsi.
According to these reports, TDP president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is contemplating appointing Ashrit as the in-charge of Gannavaram assembly constituency soon.
He has reportedly been holding talks with Lagadapati in this regard. Apparently, Naidu thought Ashrit is the right candidate with a clean slate and is also financially strong to fight against Vallabhaneni Vamsi, who defected from TDP to the YSRC soon after the TDP lost the assembly elections to YSRC in 2019.
Lagadapati, who quit the active politics after the bifurcation of combined Andhra Pradesh in 2014, confined himself to conducting pre-poll surveys, which miserably proved wrong. Since then, he has been trying to bring one of his two sons into active politics.
Naidu believes that since there is still two and a half years to go for the elections in the state, Lagadapati Ashrit could be groomed into a potential leader.
The family still holds considerable sway in Vijayawada politics and hence, it would help the party to win Gannavaram, which is on the borders of Vijayawada.
Initially, there were reports that Naidu might move Vijayawada (East) MLA Gadde Rammohan Rao to Gannavaram to fight Vamsi in the next elections and field Vangaveeti Radha from Vijayawada (East).
However, the latest reports indicate that Vangaveeti might return to YSRC and so, Naidu dropped the idea of reshuffling the constituencies, sources said.