Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Odds favour Ratna Bindu

Special Correspondent

Also in the race for Mayor post is Mallika Begum

VIJAYAWADA: Muthamsetti Venkata Ratna Bindu will become the city Mayor next week provided local MP Lagadapati Rajagopal doesn't come in her way.

Kankipadu MLA Devineni Rajasekhar (Nehru) has told The Hindu that he continues to stick to his earlier stand.

Elaborating, he says the choice of Ms. Bindu has been proposed by his colleague legislator from Vijayawada East Vangaveeti Radhakrishna. And, as long as the latter doesn't change his stance, Mr. Nehru has no issues. Mr. Radhakrishna too has clarified that his decision to support Ms. Bindu hasn't changed.

Mr. Nehru has said that he has informed Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and APCC president K. Keshava Rao that Mr. Radhakrishna's choice of mayoral candidate will be supported by him.

Mr. Rajagopal, on his part, is, however, pitching for Mallika Begum. Ms. Begum is said to be pulling strings by influencing her contacts in New Delhi. Why Mr. Rajagopal is supporting Ms. Begum's candidacy? Family friendship between the MP and the corporator harks back to several years. Besides, she belongs to a minority community.

Bowing out

Meanwhile, Mayor Tadi Sakuntala is packing her bags to pave the way for a Congress candidate as part of the electoral adjustment between the CPI and the Congress. She has convened the meeting of the general body of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) on October 6, a day before her scheduled date of demitting the office.

CPI State secretary K. Narayana is likely to visit the city on October 5 to oversee the smooth transition of power.

Mr. Radhakrishna says that the Congress party's city unit will commence the confabulations either on October 3 or 4 to clear the decks for the enthronement of Ms. Bindu.

He is confident that the MP too will have no objection in making Ms. Bindu the mayor.

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