Rumbling getting louder in TDP

• Dejected aspirants up in arms
• Revanth Reddy stakes claim for Malkajgiri
• Ashok unhappy with offer of Gajapatinagaram to BJP

The rumblings over the omissions and commissions in allotment of seats in Telugu Desam Party are getting louder. Noises are equally deafening in the party district units over the seat-sharing with the BJP that left the TDP leaders especially in Seemandhra region seething with anger. Some of the district committees are yet to reconcile with the decision as it had opened up the gates for the saffron cadres into the TDP strong holds.

The TDP spokesperson Revanth Reddy’s loyalists were out on the streets demanding the party leadership to nominate him from Malkajgiri Lok Sabha Constituency. The seat has been the bone of contention for all those pinning hopes on the voters with their roots from Seemandhra region. Revanth has been eying it for quite some time. Revanth Reddy is getting ready to file nomination on Wednesday.

The party decision to accommodate BJP in Gajapatinagarm assembly constituency annoyed the TDP workers in Vizianagaram district. Even P Ashok Gajapati Raju is said to be highly critical of the decision. It is likely to affect his electoral chances if he was nominated for the Vizianagarm Lok Sabha constituency. The TDP chief was already alerted about the consequences of allotting the seat to BJP. The party leadership has deployed a firefighting team to pacify cadre in the district. The party cadres are up in arms against the seat adjustment with the BJP in East Godavari district as well.

Naidu is not free from poll time woes even in his native district Chittoor. The TDP district unit president, Jangalapalli Srinivasulu, who had so far been a hardcore loyalist of Naidu, quit the party. He joined the YSRCP on Tuesday. Many eyebrows were raised as the name of Errabelli Dayakar Rao did not figure in the first list announced by the TDP chief on Monday. So is the case with V Chander Rao, who is hoping to be re-nominated from Kodad (Nalgoda). The party is reportedly considering the name of a young leader Mallayya Yadav in place of Chander Rao. Vijayawada (central) assembly constituency is reportedly being offered to BJP. But Bonda Umamaheswar Rao, aspiring for the party ticket called on the TDP president on Tuesday and sounded a caution to him against giving it to BJP.

In Khammam district, two of its senior leaders Nama Nageswar Rao, (sitting MP) and Tummala Nageswar Rao have been mounting pressure on the leadership for the party ticket for Khammam Lok Sabha constituency. As a way out, Tummala has been asking for the party approval to contest from Palair constituency instead Khammam. Another strong leader of the party, Kodela Siva Prasada Rao was opposing allotment of Ongole parliamentary constituency to BJP at the cost of the electoral prospects of the party in the assembly segments falling under it. It may be recalled that one of the politbureau members of the TDP Zahid Ali Khan has quit the party opposing electoral tie-up with the BJP.