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candidates sat on either side of her. PVG Raju won with a majority of 67,188 votes after a tough campaign, where his opponents called out that he was not physically fit to run for office. Analysts point out the high voter turnout from the villages of the erstwhile Vizianagaram Samasthanam ensured he got past the post easily.During the 1970s he was distant from state politics. After the Telangana agitation for a separate state, PV Narasimha Rao became the Chief Minister. During his tenure, there was a counter movement for a separate Andhra State. As the movement strengthened many of the ministers from the Andhra area turned hostile to PV Narasimha Rao, and it was becoming difficult for him to hold on to his position. In desperation, he turned to PVG Raju, then in Parliament, and offered him the Deputy Chief Ministership, thinking he would be able to assuage the feelings of the people of Andhra and help bring normalcy to the state. PVG Raju is said to have asked for some time to decide and then declined the offer, some say on the advice of the Mother at Pondicherry whose disciple he was. (My 25 Years with the King-Recluse, R.K.Dhote, In Memoriam, Mansas, 1996).Another instance when he participated in local politics was when his son Ashok Gajapathi Raju was contesting for the Assembly on the Janata Party ticket in 1978 from Vizianagaram. PVG Raju campaigned against him creating quite a stir. People remember that PVG Raju went around Vizianagaram town on a rickshaw mounted with speakers asking people to vote against his son. But there was no personal animus in the speeches and it was purely on ideological grounds that he was appealing to them to vote for the Congress. For the record, the seat was won by his son with a majority of 26,085 votes %u2013 the second highest 141