Vijayawada, Feb 8: Keen contest seems to ensue for the post of chairman of the Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali-Mangalagiri Urban Development Authority (VGTM-UDA) with leaders from Krishna and Guntur lobbying hard with their mentors to bring pressure on Chief Minister K Rosaiah.Vijayawada City Congress leader P Gowtham Reddy, a close aide of MP Lagadapati Rajagopal, is eying the post. According to his followers, Lagapati is camping in Hyderabad to lobby for the post.
Gowtham Reddy has quit the Communist Party of India only to join Congress. His entry helped Malladi Vishnu win the Vijayawada Central seat. Since then, he has been moving closely with Rajagopal. It is learnt that he played a key role in the `disappearance' of the MP from the Vijayawad hospital after which he resurfaced in Hyderabad. As if to repay the debt, Lagadapati is learnt to have been lobbying for Gowtham Reddy for the coveted UDA chairman post.Meanwhile, the leaders of Guntur district seem to be determined to capture the the post.
The leaders from the Krishna district were taken aback when they found a big `queue' of Guntur leaders lobbying for the same post.Guntur MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao and Minister Kanna Lakshminarayana seem to be bargaining hard to get the post for their followers. The Chief Minister also seems to favour a Guntur candidate as that hapens to be his home district. As Malladi Vishnu held the post till recently, observers believe that Guntur district has a strong reason to contend for the coveted post. It is learnt that the post would be filled after the coming Assembly session.