It is not Machilipatnam parliamentary constituency, as predicted earlier, but Vijayawada parliamentary constituency, which has now been named after Telugu Desam Party founder and former chief minister, legendary actor N T Rama Rao.
Though NTR’s native village Nimmakuru falls in Machilipatnam parliamentary constituency, the Jagan Mohan Reddy government decided against changing it.
Instead, he retained Krishna district with Machilipatnam as the district headquarter and named Vijayawada district after NTR.
Since any change in the name of Vijayawada might create problems because it is sentimentally attached to mythological character Arjuna, also known as Vijaya, who did penance on Indrakeeladri hills, Jagan retained Vijayawada as the name of the headquarters and only the district name would be NTR district.
While some of the districts which have existing cities as district headquarters have retained the same name, some others whose headquarters were changed have been given different names.
For example, Tirupati parliamentary constituency is now made into a district and has been named as Sri Balaji district with Tirupati as headquarters. Similarly, Hindupur parliamentary constituency has been made into the district with the name of Satya Sai but Puttaparthi was made the district headquarters.
Similarly, Araku parliamentary constituency which was divided into two districts – one was named as Manyam district with Parvatipuram as headquarters and another Alluri Seetharama Raju district with Paderu as the headquarters.
Rajampet parliamentary constituency has become the district with the name of Annamayya district with Rayachoti as the district headquarters.
Amalapuram parliamentary constituency has been made into a district with a new name “Kona Seema” and the town has been named as district headquarters.
Narsaraopet parliamentary constituency has become Palnadu district with the town becoming the district headquarters.
So is the case with Bapatla parliamentary constituency which has become a district with the same town as the headquarters.
The reorganisation has resulted in some district having lesser assembly segments, while some with more number of assembly segments.
For example, Paderu has only three assembly segnemtns and Manyam district has only four assembly segments, while Ongole, Kurnool and Srikakulam have eight assembly segments.
Anantapur has seven assembly segments, while Nandyal and Visakhapatnam have six assembly seats.
No new mandals have been created as part of district reorganisation. Kurnool is the largest district with 23.66 lakh population, Alluri Seetharama Raju district will have the lowest of 9.54 lakh population.