While the YSRCP has announced former minister Botcha Satyanarayana to be its candidate, the TDP is yet to make up its mind.
Published Aug 10, 2024 | 7:00 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 10, 2024 | 7:00 PM
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With the MLC election for Visakhapatnam Local Authorities Constituency scheduled for 3o August, winning the seat has become a life-and-death proposition for both TDP and YSRCP.
The MLC seat fell vacant after incumbent Ch Vamsikrishna Srinivas Yadav was disqualified upon joining the Jana Sena. He later won the Assembly election from Vizag South on a Jana Sena ticket. He defeated his nearest rival YSRCP candidate Ganesh Kumar Vasupalli by a margin of 64,594 votes.
The YSRCP has already announced that former minister Botcha Satyanarayana will be its candidate while the TDP is yet to make up its mind on who it should field though the nominations will close by 13 August. The counting of the same will take place on 3 September.
The YSRCP wants to retain the seat at all costs while the TDP wants to wrest it away from its hold. YSRCP supremo Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is in existential crisis, is ready to clutch even at a straw to save himself and his party from drowning in the abysmal depths of oblivion.
With the TDP-led NDA sweeping the recent Assembly elections, inflicting the most humiliating defeat on YSRCP, the party’s spirits are at the lowest ebb. Even then, it believes that it can win the seat if it is a little circumspect in approaching the polls.
This is because a majority of 615 of the 841 voters in the constituency belong to YSRCP. About 11 seats are vacant for various reasons and the remaining voters belong to the TDP.
Jagan Mohan Reddy, having polled 40 percent of votes in the recent Assembly elections, is no quitter and is trying to rise from the ashes. Winning the MLC seat is one such step.
The Telugu Desam Party is now facing an election which may not be easy for it to win as most of the voters belong to YSRCP. The party is now riding on the crest of a popularity wave and hopes that the momentum will help it win the seat also if it does a good job of micro-management at the ground level.
YSRCP supremo Jagan Mohan Reddy decided on Satyanarayana though he belongs to the neighbouring Vizianagaram district because he is not only a powerful leader in his own right, but also is from a well-to-do family capable of investing in managing the voters.
Jagan Mohan Reddy is reported to have commented with his party leaders that the TDP should not field its candidate if it has any ethical values since the majority of the voters belong to the YSRCP.
Satyanarayana lost the recent election to the Assembly from Cheepurupalli in Viziangaram district to TDP’s Kimidi Kala Venkata Rao by a margin of 11,971 votes.
The party supremo preferred Satyanarayana to the other aspirants Gudivada Amarnath, MVV Satyanarayana, and B Muthyala Raju, among others as he is good at playing the game of electoral politics, though he lost the recent election, which is considered an aberration.
While the TDP is yet to announce its candidate, the party is still undecided whether to contest at all, because a majority of the voters belong to the YSRCP.
At a meeting with leaders from North Andhra recently, TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu elicited their opinion on who should be the candidate to take on Botcha Satyanarayana.
Some leaders felt that it might be an uphill task in winning the election as they would have to poach YSRCP voters, most of who had been moved to camps.
They were of the opinion that if the party failed to ensure cross-voting from the YRSCP to the TDP, the party would lose its image.
At a time when the party is on cloud nine following its scintillating victory in the Assembly elections, any reversal in the MLC election might begin to change the public narrative that the TDP is invincible which it cannot afford.
But there were also leaders who suggested that when the TDP won the Assembly elections, many of the voters—councillors and corporators in urban local bodies, MPTCs and ZPTCs were in favour of the TDP, though they had won their respective elections on YSRCP ticket.
According to sources, Chandrababu Naidu had decided to contest the election and win it. He is understood to have left the responsibility of drawing a strategy to win the seat to the local leaders of Visakhapatnam. Chandrababu is also understood to have opined that in a democracy, political parties should contest all elections.
In this case, too, the TDP cannot leave the seat uncontested, he is reported to have said.
The aspirants for the TDP ticket include former MLAs Gandi Babji, Peela Govind Satyanarayana, and party leader Battula Tatayya, among others.
These names came up for discussion at a meeting called by TDP Andhra pradesh president Palla Srinivasa Rao at his residence in Gajuwaka in the erstwhile Visakhapatnam district recently.
(Edited by Sumavarsha Kandula)
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