Keen fight between YSRCP, TDP in Tirupati on the cards

Tirupati: This world famous pilgrim city was once a Congress citadel. Tirupati has been Congress citadel between 1952 and 1977. The only exception was in 1967 when the Swantantra Party candidate got elected from here.

After the TDP was formed, N T Rama Rao won from here and in 1984 by-elections TDP candidate Dr Kathula Shyamala had won. After a gap of about 8 years, in 1985 and later in 1989, Congress candidate Mabburami Reddy defeated TDP candidate. In 1994 and 1999, the TDP staged a comeback when Avula Mohan and Chadalawada Krishnamurthy had won in 1994 and 1999 respectively.

In 2004, when there was a Congress wave under the leadership of YS Rajasekhara Reddy, the party candidate Venkataramana had won. In the next elections, it was the turn of Megastar K Chiranjeevi who won as the Praja Rajyam candidate. He resigned in 2012 when he merged his party with the Congress. He later became Rajya Sabha member and served as the Union Minister of State for Tourism (independent charge).

In the first elections after the bifurcation of the State in 2014, M Venkataramana who had quit the Congress and joined TDP had secured victory. Later in the bypolls following his death due to ill-health, his wife M Sugunamma had won from this constituency. In 2019 YSRCP candidate Bhumana Karunakar Reddy who is the present MLA and TTD chairman defeated the TDP candidate and won the seat.

Once again both the YSRCP and TDP are in the race and it appears that it would be a keen fight. The TDP-JSP combine is hoping that the anti-incumbency factor coupled with caste equations would help their joint candidate to win the polls. In Tirupati, Balijas are the majority community and most of them would favour a candidate from their own community.