Visakhapatnam: The Kakinada Lok Sabha constituency, a Kapu heartland of East Godavari, seems set for a three-cornered contest between the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), YSR Congress (YSRC) and Jana Sena in the ensuing elections. Interestingly, all the three MP candidates from the three parties were sailing with the erstwhile Praja Rajyam Party (PRP), floated by film star K Chiranjeevi, during the 2009 elections. Moreover, all the three candidates belong to the dominant Kapu community.Chalamalasetty Sunil, the TDP MP candidate, made his political debut with the Praja Rajyam Party. He had unsuccessfully contested from the same constituency on a Praja Rajyam ticket in the 2009 elections and on a YSRC ticket in the 2014 elections. Now, he is testing his luck for the third time from Kakinada from a different political outfit.Citing health issues, the incumbent TDP MP from Kakinada, Thota Narasimham had made it clear that he could not contest the Lok Sabha elections. He had requested the TDP to allocate the Jaggampeta assembly ticket, which he had represented twice as an MLA, to his wife Vani. However, his attempts turned futile as the TDP Jaggampeta ticket was already reserved for sitting MLA Jyothula Venkata Apparao (Nehru). Thota Narasimhan recently shifted his loyalty to the YSRC. His wife Vani got the YSRC Peddapuram assembly ticket. Later on, TDP announced Ch Sunil as their candidate for the Kakinada Lok Sabha constituency.Vanga Geethaviswanath, former member of the Rajya Sabha and zilla parishad chairperson of East Godavari, was one of the four MLAs who won on a Praja Rajyam ticket from East Godavari in 2009. The former Pithapuram Praja Rajyam MLA had maintained a low profile since 2014 after her term ended. She recently pledged her allegiance to the YSRC and the party finalised her candidature for the Kakinada parliamentary constituency.On the other hand, Jyothula Venkateswara Rao, the Jana Sena MP candidate and founder of the Chiranjeevi Voluntary Blood Bank, worked closely with Praja Rajyam during the 2009 elections and expected the Kakinada city MLA ticket. But due to caste equations in play, the PRP had chosen Bandana Hari over Venkateswara Rao as the MLA candidate. Recently, Pawan Kalyan announced Venkateswara Rao as their MP candidate for Kakinada.The Congress has nominated Mallipudi Sri Ramachandra Murthy (Rambabu) and the BJP has nominated Yalla Venkata Rama Mohana Rao (Dorababu) from the constituency, however they are nowhere to be seen in the contest.

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