Congmen come in bulk, seniors sulk

• Naidu balm likely for ‘hurt’ veterans
• ‘Peeved’ TDP cadres up in arms

TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu is now faced with a major task of convincing his own party seniors before he announces the list of candidates for Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

The party which is in an upbeat mood with several important Congress leaders including the former ministers and all those who had left TDP and joined Praja Rajyam Party are returning to the party fold. But the way the new entrants were getting assurances with regard to the party tickets was causing disenchantment among the senior leaders who have been with the party all through. Such leaders are now threatening to quit if their interests were neglected.

In Visakhapatnam, Ch Ayyanna Partrudu is miffed with the entry of former minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao. Patrudu has raised a banner of revolt. He says if he and his followers are not given tickets, he will go against the party and it could harm the party prospects in the elections.

Pendurthy MLA P Ramesh Babu, Bheemili MLA M Srinivasa Rao and Yalamanchili MLA UV Ramana Murthy (all from Congress), who joined the TDP, are facing strong opposition from the TDP cadre in their respective constituencies. The sitting MLAs are insisting on party tickets.

In Nellore district, the cadre is angry over the leadership for admitting Congress MLA Adala Prabhakar Reddy into the party. Senior leader Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy feels that this could affect his political future in the Sarvepalli assembly constituency. In the last elections, Prabhakar Reddy had won the election from this constituency in 2009. Naidu reportedly asked Chandramohan Reddy to contest for Nellore Lok Sabha seat but he wants to fight election from his home constituency only.

The sitting TDP MLA S Linga Reddy who represents Proddatur constituency in Kadapa district is also a worried man as his opponent Varadarajulu Reddy had joined TDP.

In Anantapur district, the party cadre under the leadership of Raptadu MLA and slain TDP leader Paritala Ravindra’s wife P Sunitha is strongly opposing the Naidu’s inclination to admit JC Diwakar Reddy and his brother JC Prabhakar Reddy into the party forcing Naidu to postpone admission of JC brothers.

In East Godavari district, former minister Thota Narasimham met Naidu and decided to join the party but TDP leader Jyothula Chanti Babu opposed the move. Congress MP from Guntur Rayapati Sambasiva Rao is lobbying to get TDP ticket from Narasaraopet Parliamentary constituency. The sitting MP M Venugopala Reddy is also trying hard to retain the seat. He even threatened to quit the party if he was not given opportunity to fight election this time.

Union Minister Kavuri Sambasiva Rao who is likely to join TDP held a meeting of his party workers in Eluru and gave them questionnaire asking them as to which party he should join. Majority of the workers ticked on TDP. However, Rao is yet to take a final decision on the issue.