TDP struggles to finalise candidate for Darsi

Darsi: The equations, graphs and reports of various surveys conducted to choose the ideal candidate for the Darsi Assembly constituency didn’t yield the desired result to the TDP high command.

The TDP didn’t have consistent leadership at Darsi almost for the last four-and-a-half years. The party changed the in-charges to conduct various programmes, but no one proved consistent. Expecting that the TDP would offer the Darsi seat to the Jana Sena Party as part of the alliance, Garikapati Venkat joined the JSP and started to build rapport with the locals. He organised several programmes with the local TDP and JSP leaders to garner support.

After the TDP and JSP extended their alliance to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the seat-sharing equation changed. TDP appointed Gorantla Ravi Kumar as the in-charge of the Darsi Assembly constituency, indicating that he is also in the race for the Darsi ticket. Meanwhile, former Darsi MLA and once a great supporter of TDP, Sidda Raghava Rao, also came into the picture.

Sidda Raghava Rao stood as one of the pillars of the Telugu Desam Party between 2004 and 2014. As a token of gratitude, the party offered him the Darsi ticket in 2014 and made him a minister in the cabinet. In the last-minute changes in the 2019 elections, TDP asked him to contest as the Ongole MP candidate against his wishes to contest again as the Darsi MLA candidate.

After the defeat in 2019, and due to political pressures, he joined the YSR Congress Party.

The YSRCP denied the ticket to sitting MLA Maddisetty Venugopal and offered it to Dr Buchepalli Siva Prasad Reddy. Though Raghava Rao, Venugopal, and Siva Prasad Reddy are in the same party, they do not have good terms between them. Venugopal and Raghava Rao also tried for the YSRCP candidature from Darsi, but the party’s president stuck to his plan to field Siva Prasad Reddy from Darsi.As there was no chance to get the ticket from YSRCP, Sidda Raghava Rao approached TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu. The TDP is all set to welcome its old loyal friend into its fold, but the decision on the Darsi ticket is kept in abeyance. The party conducted surveys by calling the locals of Darsi over mobile phone to learn from them as to who they want be as the TDP candidate.

The party received samples with Garikapati Venkat, Gorantla Ravi Kumar and Sidda Raghava Rao together and with individual names against NOTA. The locals also claimed that some of them received calls surveying with the name, Sidda Sudheer, son of Raghava Rao, and noted entrepreneur.

In the Prakasam district, the TDP is yet to finalise the candidature for the Ongole Lok Sabha constituency and the Darsi Assembly constituency. On Monday, Magunta Raghava Reddy clarified that his father Srinivasulu Reddy will be contesting as the MP candidate as per the orders of the TDP national president Chandrababu Naidu. It is expected that Sidda Raghava Rao and Sudheer, along with their supporters, will join the Telugu Desam Party on Wednesday.

As the analysis of the survey reports is expected to be completed by Tuesday, TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu may announce the candidates for the Ongole MP seat and Darsi MLA seat very soon.