Though the Election Commission announced the poll schedule, nearly a week ago, the poll campaign is yet to pick up momentum with the many of the political parties not yet finalising the party nominees for many of the Assembly segments in the district.
The party offices are witnessing some activity or the other all through the day but hardly a few candidates, whose names have already been cleared by the respective parties and those who are confident of getting the party tickets, are undertaking poll campaigns on a subdued note.
While the arch rivals — the TDP and the YSRCP — have almost finalised candidates for a majority of the seats, the BJP, the Congress and the Jana Sena Party (JSP) lag behind with the parties still on the lookout for suitable candidates.
The scheduled election campaign of TDP president and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and YSRCP president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, in the district on Sunday, is expected to boost the morale of the candidates and leaders of both the parties.
The YSRCP seems to be ahead in campaign as its vehicles already hit the roads a couple of days ago.
Besides Visakhapatnam East, West, South and North, Bheemunipatnam, Gajuwaka and Pendurty also fall in the city limits. In the last elections, the TDP and its erstwhile ally BJP swept the polls winning all the seats, while the YSRCP drew a blank.
The YSRCP has already finalised Anakapalle MP Avanthi Srinivasa Rao, who recently joined the party, as the YSRCP candidate for the Bheemunipatnam segment. The candidates for most of the other constituencies are yet to be finalised by the party.
Meanwhile, there a rush for enrolment of names on the last day for enrolment of voters at the Voter Helpline, set up by the Election Commission of India at the Collectorate, on Friday.