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CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy brainstorms Tirupati bypoll
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy discussing with party leaders over the upcoming Tirupati Lok Sabha byelection, at Tadepalli on Thursday
- YSRCP may field wife or son of Durgaprasad
- TDP already announced Panabaka Lakshmi as its candidate
- BJP mulling to jump into the fray
- Jana Sena not yet decided on fighting the poll
Amaravati: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday conferred with ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs, and key YSRCP leaders of Chittoor and Nellore districts to discuss the Tirupati Lok Sabha by-election.
The by-election has been necessitated with the demise of YSRCP Lok Sabha member Balli Durgaprasad recently due to Covid-19. It is said that the Chief Minister was all for fielding the former MP's spouse from the seat. In case she is not willing, then the automatic choice is his son, Kalyan.
The Telugu Desam Party has recently named former Union Minister of State Panabaka Lakshmi as its candidate for the by-election to the Tirupati (SC) Lok Sabha constituency.
TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu announced his choice during a videoconference with party leaders of the constituency. He appealed to them to work for the victory of Lakshmi, who joined the TDP from Congress last year. It was a foregone conclusion that the ruling party would be fielding the kin of the late MP and a formal announcement is expected anytime now. The BJP is said to be keen to enter the fray as its local leadership claims that "situation is ripe" for it to take on the ruling party "for its anti-Hindu stand on several counts".
It would be interesting to see whether Jana Sena will get into the fray at all and even if it does, whether it is going to be an ally of the BJP with which Pawan Kalyan joined hands recently. Neither the BJP nor the Jana Sena leaders are speaking about the elections as of now.
The BJP leadership is hopeful that the Jana Sena would clear out of the fray. However, Jana Sena members and fans of Pawan Kalyan want the latter to field a candidate from Tirupati "which could be easily won" due to a large fan following that the actor has in the region. If the BJP fields a candidate, its success would depend on the support of Jana Sena to a large extent. YSRCP is confident that its pro-people policies, particularly, pro-Dalit, would make it an easy task for it. "Sympathy for the kin of the deceased MP is another factor in our favour," a party insider said.
Recent alleged attacks on Dalits and the desecration of Hindu temples are going to be the main planks of the campaign for the Opposition in the by-election.
