All eyes are on the port city Visakhapatnam since YS Vijayamma, who is YSR Congress honorary president as well as widow of the late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, is seeking election to the Lok Sabha from this constituency.
She faces Kambhampati Haribabu, president of the Andhra Pradesh unit of BJP, in what would be a straight fight between the two candidates.
Expelled Congress MP from Anakapalle and former Mayor of Visakhapatnam Sabbam Hari is contesting on behalf of the Jai Samaikyaandhra Party while the Congress has put up an information technology company head Bolisetti Satyanarayana, who is a political novice.
A cosmopolitan city, Visakhapatnam is the largest city in the Seemandhra region and is a predominantly urban constituency with over 16.7 lakh voters.
The South, East, North, West segments of Visakhapatnam city, Gajuwaka and Bheemunipatnam (Bheemili) are the urban assembly segments, while Srungavarapu Kota in neighbouring Vizianagaram district is the lone rural segment under Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency.
Stalwarts like Tenneti Viswanadham, PVG Raju represented the constituency, while in recent years, the likes of former CM Nedurumalli Janardhan Reddy and former Union Minister Daggubati Purandeswari won the seat.
Purandeswari won the 2009 election as a Congress candidate, but left the party in March in protest against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
Since there is a lot of euphoria about the electoral prospects of the YSR Congress in Seemandhra, Vijayamma is being considered a "favourite" to trounce Haribabu, who is being supported by the Telugu Desam Party and the newly-formed Jana Sena headed by Chiranjeevi's brother and movie actor Pawan Kalyan.
