Parties scramble to pacify dissidents

• Major heartburn seen in TDP, Congress
• Leaders at a loss over rebels issue, too

Hyderabad: The stage is now set for the big fight as all political parties have announced the list of candidates for the Assembly and Lok Sabha after high drama and turns and twists. However, they are still beset with infighting and growing dissent in their rank and file.

The heat of dissent is visible on the leaders of all parties – rebels are threatening to play spoilsport. Maximum dissension was witnessed in the TDP and the Congress parties. While there was some bickering in the BJP, the TRS and the YSRCP are the only parties which have not experienced much trouble. YSR Congress Party senior leader and former legislator from Machilipatnam Perni Venkatramaiah (Nani) played hide and seek with the party and his supporters. There was hullabaloo in the segment until Kodali Nani entered the scene and traced him in Hyderabad. He held discussions with Perni after the latter had returned and put an end to the high drama.

There were speculations about the seat that would be given to the YSRCP honorary president Y S Vijayalakshmi. Finally, the party decided to field her from Visakhapatnam LS constituency. Former Union Minister D Purandeswari who joined BJP recently was said to be the party candidate from this seat, but it now appears that the saffron party has given in to pressure and has decided to field K Haribabu, its Seemandhra president from this seat. This means that Purandeswari will be confined only to campaign for the party candidates.

With the YSRCP announcing its list of candidates, curtains are pulled down on the suspense over whether or not Sharmila would contest the polls. She will now be the star campaigner for the party in Telangana.

The unrest is more visible at the Kesineni Srinivas camp, with his supporters holding protests for every hour as the news kept changing on the party’s decision to drop him from the Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituency race. They expressed shock and resorted to slogan shouting at the office every time the news of the party considering the names of Potluri Vara Prasad, Koneru Satyanarayana and Komati Jairam for the Vijayawada LS seat and asking Kesineni to shift to the Penamaluru Assembly segment broke. Nani met Naidu more than twice in the last two days and now it appears that Naidu has decided to give Vijayawada LS seat to Nani.

Dissention erupted in Seemandhra Congress within hours after party high command released the list of candidates of 139 Assembly segments on Sunday night. While some expressed dissatisfaction over denial of tickets to them, others are unhappy over not being consulted before finalising the names.

Dissatisfaction by Congress workers led to vandalism in Anantapur where youth Congress workers ransacked the party office in the presence of former minister S Sailajanath. Surprisingly, the name of Dokka Manikya Varaprasad, former minister, is missing from the list. Dokka, party sources say, has been kept aside as he was initially wavering on whether or not to continue in the party. Dokka, who represents Tadikonda (SC), wanted to contest from Vemuru. But party chose another candidate here. Though disappointed, Dokka said he would remain in the party and campaign for success of the party candidates.

Senior leader and former minister Kasu Venkata Krishna Reddy, who is being fielded from Narsaraopet Lok Sabha constituency, is unhappy because the candidates from Assembly segments that fall in his constituency were picked up without his consent. Upset over this he told the media: “I will decide whether to contest the polls or not after discussing with my followers.”