A look at Andhra politics in the approaching elections from former senior police and government workers

Before voluntarily retiring, former police officer Vasagiri Venkata Lakshminarayana, also known as JD Lakshmi Narayana, held the position of joint director of the CBI. He oversaw the investigation in many well-known cases, including the Satyam affair, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy disproportionate asset case, and the Obulapuram Mining Company controversy. He entered politics and became a member of the Jana Sena Party. In 2019, he ran an unsuccessful campaign for the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency. After quitting the JSP in 2020, he founded the Jai Bharat National Party in December of 2023. He intends to run for the assembly seat in Vizag North.

 

Suresh Audimulapu

Suresh is a PhD holder in computer science engineering and a former government official. In 1989, he was chosen for the Indian Railway Accounts Service, where he held several positions. He entered the Congress in 2009, having worked as a bureaucrat for 20 years, after completing VRS. He ran for office from Yerragondapalem and was victorious. He joined the YSRC in 2014 and was elected to the Santhanutalapadum Assembly. He emerged victorious from Yerragondapalem once again in 2019 and was admitted into Jagan’s cabinet. He will now be running in the Prakasam Kondepi Assembly seat.

Imtiaz AMD

Imtiaz, a senior IAS official, recently joined the YSRC after voluntarily leaving the government. He intends to run in the Kurnool Assembly election. Kurnool native Imtiaz has held a variety of positions. He has held positions as the Department of Minority Welfare’s special secretary and district collector for Krishna. Prior to enrolling in VRS, he held the position of extra chief commissioner of land administration.

Varaprasada Rao Velagapalli

Rao, an IAS officer from the 1983 Tamil Nadu cadre, retired voluntarily in 2009 to pursue a career in politics. A native of Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district, he joined the Praja Rajyam Party and ran unsuccessfully for the Lok Sabha seat in Tirupati. He thereafter joined YSRC. He ran a successful YSRC campaign in 2014 for the Tirupati Parliament seat. He was elected to the Gudur Assembly in 2019. He joined the BJP when his ticket was refused. He is going to run for the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat once again.

Varaprasad Deva

Retired IAS official Varaprasad joined the Jana Sena Party in June 2022 after serving in a number of Andhra Pradesh departments. He was nominated for the Razole Assembly seat and is a native of Dindi village. After thirty years of service in various roles, he retired as an officer at the secretary level. Varaprasad, a well-known true and upright officer, has participated actively in the JSP and worked to ensure the Jana Vani program’s success.

Rangaiah Talari

Rangaiah, a Group-1 officer, voluntarily left the military to pursue a career in politics. Rangaiah is a double postgraduate student from the Boya (Valmiki) community. As a project director for many departments, he rose to prominence in the community. When he enrolled in VRS in 2017 and joined the YSRC in 2018, he was working as the department’s additional director for handloom and textiles. With a one lakh vote margin, he won the Anantapur Lok Sabha seat in 2019. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the head of the YSRC, has chosen to run him from the Kalyandurg Assembly seat this time.

Krishna Prasad T.

Krishna Prasad, a 1986 batch IPS officer who retired, served as the Telangana Road Safety Authority’s chairman. He joined the BJP two years ago with the goal of running from Telangana in the general elections. He is an alumnus of NIT Warangal and IIM Ahmedabad. But for the Bapatla Lok Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh, he was brought in by the TDP, an NDA ally.