It appears even veteran and seasoned politician like former Union minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju is not able to overcome dissidence from within Telugu Desam Party in his own constituency Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh.
In fact, Ashok is a descendant of the royal family of Vizianagaram, a district which has been formed after his ancestors and he has been one of the founding members of the TDP.
Yet, he has been facing a stiff resistance from a section of TDP leaders, particularly former MLA Meesala Geetha, who represented Vizianagaram assembly constituency between 2014 and 2019, when Ashok was elected to Lok Sabha and became a Union minister.
In the 2019 assembly elections, she was denied the TDP ticket for a second successive term, as Ashok lobbied for the ticket to his daughter Aditi Gajapath Raju, who lost the elections in the Jagan wave.
Though Geetha was sulking for being denied ticket, she did not quit the party.
Now, Geetha has become active again in the TDP and is strongly lobbying for the TDP ticket from Vizianagaram again.
However, Ashok Gajapathi Raju wants to return to the assembly again much to the anguish of Geetha.
This led to a cold war of sorts between Ashok group and Geetha group. For the last two days, there have been flex boards in Vizianagaram in the name of BC Aikya Vedika, demanding that BC should be given prominence in the issuance of party tickets and not Rajus, who are in minority.
The Ashok group is of the view that Geetha is behind this flex war, as she has been strongly demanding that the TDP should give ticket to the BCs.
She has been staying away from the party activities being attended by Ashok Gajapathi Raju and has opened a separate party office in the town.
It remains to be seen how TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu resolves this internal war in Vizianagaram, which has become prestigious for the party in the next elections.
