Venkanna takes out massive rally seeking West ticket

Vijayawada: While the top leadership of TDP and Jana Sena are trying to forge an alliance to contest the polls and regain power, the local leaders are insisting that they should be given a chance to contest and putting pressure on their party leaders.

The TDP state leadership may face some problems if the local leaders demand for the tickets to contest the polls.

TDP leader and former MLC Buddha Venkanna took out a mega rally in West Assembly constituency as part of his efforts to impress the leadership to get the ticket to contest from the segment.

Venkanna is a former MLC and is one of the loyal TDP leaders in Vijayawada for a long time. He is asking the party leadership to give him a chance to contest the polls from the West constituency.

Addressing media, he said the party leadership should choose candidates who are loyal to the party for a long time and appealed to both TDP chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu and the Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan to consider him this time.

On the other hand, the demand made by Buddha Venkanna and his supporters may create problems for Jana Sena and its leader Potina Mahesh, who is also aspiring for the ticket to contest from the West assembly constituency.

Potina Mahesh has been conducting the party activities for the past few years and is strongly demanding that the ticket should be issued to Jana Sena.

Potina Mahesh belongs to Nagaralu caste, who are in sizable numbers in West segment. Muslims, Arya Vysya, Nagaralu and Dalit voters play a decisive role in winning the elections. Jana Sena is asking for three segments-- Vijayawada West, Avanigadda and Pedana in erstwhile Krishna district. Avanigadda is also in the list. The erstwhile Krishna district has 16 assembly segments. Two segments, Kaikaluru and Nuzvid are now in Eluru district. The remaining 14 are in Krishna and NTR districts.