New faces on the dais at CM's meeting

Tirupati: Interestingly in the first election campaign meeting addressed by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in Tirupati, many new political faces have surfaced on the dais on Saturday here.

As part of ensuing Assembly and Lok Sabha poll campaign, Naidu launched his campaign from the temple town of Tirupati.

In the meeting several new entrants into the TDP like former Union Minister Panabaka Lakshmi who is expected to the TDP candidate to contest from Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency and her husband Panabaka Krishnaiah were present on the dais.

Pungunur Assembly constituency TDP candidate Anisha Reddy and her husband Srinath Reddy were also present on the dais. Former sarpanch of M R Palli B Mamatha, who recently joined the TDP was also present.

TUDA Chairman Narasimha Yadav who had earlier opposed the candidature of M Suguna for Tirupati Assembly seat also attended the public meeting and spoke in support of Suguna's candidature.

Drinking water and buttermilk supplied: Due to hot weather conditions, plenty of drinking water bottles and buttermilk packets were supplied to the TDP workers at SVU stadium, the venue for the party meeting.

To bring the party workers to the Chief Minister's meeting across the district, the TDP had arranged many buses and cars. Tirupati Urban police deployed sufficient police personnel for bandobust at the venue.

As per the schedule, the meeting was supposed to start at 1 pm, but the meeting started one hour behind schedule.

While addressing the meeting, the Chief Minister indirectly introduced the new candidates and said that this time party nominated several capable candidates as TDP nominees to fight the elections for both the State Assembly and Lok Sabha.

Naidu called upon party workers to put in hard work in the next 25 days to ensure that the TDP retains power in the State.

Interestingly, video surveillance teams of the Election Commission of India recorded the entire proceedings of the Chief Minister's meeting.

In the meeting, a large number of TDP workers wore yellow shirts and spectacles representing party's election symbol 'cycle.'

At the beginning of the meeting, the Chief Minister beat the drums to formally launch the TDP's poll campaign for the ensuing Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.