TDP fields former IRS officer for Chittoor LS seat

Tirupati : Now it is almost clear that TDP is contesting only one Lok Sabha seat in the erstwhile Chittoor district out of three constituencies. The party has announced the candidacy of former IRS officer Daggumalla Prasada Rao for Chittoor reserved Lok Sabha constituency. BJP may field its candidates from both Tirupati reserved and Rajampet LS constituencies.

Chittoor is TDP’s stronghold as it won the seat seven times since 1984 out of 10 elections held. The party’s candidate N Ramakrishna Reddy has won the seat thrice followed by N Sivaprasad twice. DK Adikesavulu Naidu and NP Jhansi Lakshmi have won one time each. In the 2019 election YSRCP’s N Reddeppa defeated Sivaprasad by a margin of 1,37,271 votes. While Reddeppa is contesting again on YSRCP ticket, TDP has been fielding a new face.

Its candidate Prasada Rao was a native of Bapatla and retired as joint commissioner of Income Tax department. His name was widely speculated for the past few months along with a few other names. Finally, the party zeroed in on Prasada Rao’s candidacy only. In 2019 elections, out of the seven Assembly segments under Chittoor Lok Sabha constituency, TDP only won Kuppam while the remaining six were bagged by YSRCP. This had given a big dent to the electoral fortunes of its Lok Sabha candidate.

Tirupati LS constituency had become a bitter pill for the TDP from the beginning as it won only one election in 1984 out of 11 held during the last four decades. Even that candidate has switched allegiance subsequently to the Congress party. On the other hand, BJP has been contesting from Tirupati since 1998 sometimes on its own while on some other occasions, as part of alliance with TDP. But it could win only once in 1999. This time around, BJP eyed this seat as part of the alliance with TDP-JSP for which the names of former chief secretary of Karnataka government K Ratna Prabha, his daughter A Niharika, Munisubramanyam and others.

BJP contested from the Rajampet LS seat in 2014 by fielding Daggubati Purandeswari as TDP-BJP alliance candidate. But she lost the election by 1,74,762 votes difference to YSRCP’s Peddireddi Midhun Reddy. Now, there is a chance of BJP contesting this seat again on behalf of the NDA alliance. In such a scenario, there are more chances for the former CM of combined Andhra Pradesh N Kiran Kumar Reddy from Rajampet while YSRCP has already announced the candidature of sitting MP P Midhun Reddy who is looking for his hat-trick win. A complete picture on the contesting candidates will emerge only after BJP announces its list.