Former civil aviation minister and senior polit bureau member of Telugu Desam Party Ashok Gajapathi Raju, who represented the Vizianagaram constituency for nearly four decades, is likely to bid goodbye to his political career very soon as per reliable reports. This news appears to be true because his daughter Aditi Vijay Lakshmi Gajapathi Raju was announced as the MLA candidate of Vizianagaram in the recently announced first list of TDP – Janasena alliance.
Ashok Gajapathi Raju, who contested as a Member of Parliament in 2019 and was defeated by YSRCP’s Bellana Chandrasekhar, has been keeping himself away from political activities for quite some time now. He has reportedly expressed his disinterest in vying in the upcoming elections owing to his old age and health issues. Though Chandra Babu Naidu was keen on fielding Raju from Vizianagaram as MLA this time, the former Revenue Minister has informed the high command that he doesn’t want to contest and recommended his daughter’s candidature for the same constituency.
Sources revealed that Raju is not active in election campaigns due to health concerns. But, his daughter has been aggressively campaigning all over the district with the help of local leaders and coordinating effectively with ground-level cadre. She is likely to take on YSRCP’s sitting MLA Kolagatla Veerabhadra Swamy against whom she lost in 2019.
Meanwhile, there is another rumour within the political circles that Ashok Gajapathi Raju might be nominated as a governor in the future if TDP forges an alliance with the BJP for the assembly elections in AP and the NDA government wins in the coming Loksabha elections later. Raju’s unblemished political track record and his commendable tenure as aviation minister from 2014 to 2018 will be taken into consideration by the BJP to name as a governor if at all there are any such plans.