Yelamanchili Ravi is representing the Vijayawada East Assembly Constituency of the Krishna District. He is representing the Telugu Desam Party and defeated Vangaveeti Radha Krishna of PRP and Devineni Rajasekhar (Nehru) of the Congress Party during 2009 Assembly elections. Vangaveeti Radha Krishna contested on the ticket of Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) in 2009 elections. With strong support from Vijayawada voters in the last rounds of counting, Yalamanchili Ravi won that election with a very thin margin of 187 votes. Following is the brief profile of Yalamanchili Ravi:
Y. Ravi belongs to general category and his father’s name is Y. Nageswara Rao. His address is at Koneru Vari Street, 70-1-1, Patamata, Vijayawada. Y. Ravi born on 11th June 1960 at Vijayawada. He studied Matriculation and settled in business. He was elected to assembly for the first time in 2009 elections. Earlier to this, he worked as a Corporator of division 44, Vijayawada. He was married to Smt Y Radha Krishna and they have two children.
The defeat of sitting Congress MLA and former minister Devineni Rajasekhar from Vijayawada East Assembly constituency in 2009 elections was a huge surprise for political observers. It was widely believed by observers that Vangaveeti Radha Krishna of PRP spoiled the winning chances of Devineni Rajasekhar. Rajasekhar, who contested Assembly elections five times before 2009 was was defeated only once. That was also by Y. Ravi’s father, Yalamanchili Nageswara Rao.
Political rivalry between Devineni and Yalamanchili families has been there for a long time in the Krishna district. Devineni Rajasekhar elected to Assembly from Kankipadu constituency and won four consecutive times in 1983, 1985, 1989 and 1994 as a candidate of the TDP. Rajasekhar left the TDP after the death of N.T. Rama Rao and joined the Congress Party and was later given the Congress ticket in 1999 Assembly elections. Yalamanchli Nageswara Rao was in the Congress party at that time and defeated twice by Rajasekhar in 1989 and 1994 Assembly elections.
Y. Nageswara Rao left the Congress Party after the party’s decision to admit Rajasekhar into the Congress and later became a member of the TDP. Yalamanchli Ravi also followed the tradition of his father and he was a Congress corporator before joining in TDP and contesting from Vijayawada East Constituency in 2009 elections. The strategy of the TDP to field Yalamanchili Nageswara Rao against Rajasekhar in 1999 elections also worked out well and Nageswara Rao defeated Rajasekhar with a huge margin of more than 1 lakh votes. After the delimitation came into force in 2009 elections, Kankipadu has been divided into the purview of three constituencies and Rajasekhar selected Vijayawada East and defeated by Y. Ravi.