A stronghold of the Congress till the inception of the TDP, the Anakapalle Lok Sabha constituency has never been a bastion of any party since then. The TDP and the Congress have been winning the seat by turns since 1984 and no party scored victory thrice in a row.
The constituency hogged the limelight in 1989 when Konathala Ramakrishna, who was the Congress candidate, scraped through with a margin of just nine votes.
In the last elections, Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao also known as Avanti Srinivas won the seat on the TDP ticket by a margin of over 47,000 votes defeating Gudivada Amaranath of the YSRCP. However, Avanti Srinivas switched over to the YSRCP ahead of elections and moved to the Bheemunipatnam Assembly constituency this time.
In this elections, most of the parties fielded new faces. While the YSRCP zeroed in on B.V. Satyavati, a local doctor and a novice in politics, the TDP has nominated Adari Anand Kumar, son of Tulasi Rao, a strong leader in the region and chairman of the Visakha Dairy.
On the other hand, the Jana Sena Party, which is emerging as a force to reckon with in the region, has fielded its general secretary Chintala Parthasarathy.
Though Gandi Venkata Satyanarayana of the BJP and Sreerama Murty of the Congress are also in the race, the main contest will be among the TDP, the YSRCP and the Jana Sena Party.
While the TDP banks heavily on the welfare schemes introduced by the State government, the YSRCP candidate says the padayatra by party chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will help her romp home.
The JSP nominee is sure of emerging victorious as he believes the youth is solidly behind the party. Moreover, the party leaders are of the view that the charisma of party founder Pawan Kalyan will double the winning chances.
With an electorate of over 15 lakh, the constituency is plagued by a number of issues like pollution caused by the pharma companies and the crisis faced by co-operative sugar factories.