TDP confident of clinching victory in Nellore city

Nellore: The TDP which has won the election only twice in 1983 (Anam Ramanarayana Reddy) and 1994 (Tallapaka Ramesh Reddy) from Nellore city Assembly constituency since its formation in 1983, exudes confidence of winning in the ensuing State Assembly elections.

The TDP also analysed the possibility of fielding former Nellore city Mayor Shaik Abdul Aziz who represents Muslim community since there are sizeable number of Muslim votes. Another candidate whose name is under active consideration is Ponguru Narayana who lost to Anil Kumar Yadav with a margin of just 1,988 votes in 2019. The TDP has not yet officially announced the name since they are in alliance with JSP and propose to announce joint list soon.

TDP nominee P Narayana is a well known educationist and former chairman of Narayana Educational Institutions. He also has sympathy among voters as he was defeated last time with wafer thin majority. Added to it is the anti-incumbency factor which makes the TDP feel that it would certainly win the seat this time.

Now political equations are different as the backward sections particularly the Yadava community is fuming on the ruling party for replacing P Anil Kumar Yadav with one Mohammad Khaleel Ahmed, Deputy Mayor of Nellore Municipal Corporation and a close follower of Anil Kumar Yadav. Members of the Yadava community are openly stating that they will not work for the party candidate.

This constituency has total 2,38,734 voters. Muslim minority voters are around 46,000. The SC voters are 23,712, STs 11,773 and the remaining voters belong to BCs and forwarded classes.