High-profile leaders file nominations

Hyderabad: TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, YSR Congress Party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and his mother Y S Vijayalakshmi are among the high-profile leaders who filed nominations for Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. As TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu is away in Coastal Andhra campaigning for the party, his son Nara Lokesh filed the nomination papers in Kuppam on Thursday. Lokesh conducted a road show all along the 3 km route stretch Kuppam from PES Medical College and performed special puja at Vardaraja Swamy temple in Lakshmipuram locality.

Addressing a huge gathering at Kuppam bus stand he lashed out at the successive Congress governments which, he said, virtually ruined state during their 10-year rule. He said Naidu having a stint of 40-year-long impeccable political career is the only person capable of taking up the reconstruction of Seemandhra. Jaganmohan Reddy submitted his papers for Pulivendula Assembly segment, the YSR family stronghold in native Kadapa district in Rayalaseema. He is contesting the Assembly elections for the first time. He was accompanied by his uncle Y S Vivekananda Reddy, E C Gangi Reddy and other senior leaders.

YSR Congress Party honorary president YS Vijayalakshmi on Thursday filed her nomination for Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency amid pomp and fanfare. She submitted the papers to the returnintg officer at 2.15 p.m. Her daughter Sharmila, son-in-law Brother Anil, Konathala Ramakrishna, YSRCP city president Malla Vijaya Prasad and others were present.

Vijayamma’s convoy started out from the party office in Maddilapalem. At Jagadamba Junction , she garlanded the statue of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and addressed the gahtering. She said Visakhapatnam was dear to late YSR who tried to develop the place on the lines of Hyderabad. She also thanked the public for supporting Jagan and Sharmila.

Vijayamma was accompanied by hundreds of supporters to the Collectorate where she filed the papers. Traffic came to a standstill in and around the Collectorate during her visit to the place. Sharmila call to TDP workers Sharmila who came with her husband Anil Kumar, was surprised by the presence of TDP workers with flags at the Collectorate. The latter accompanied TDP’s Vizag East Assembly candidate Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu who went in to file his nomination. Sharmila told theTDP workers that all of them except their president Chandrababu Naidu were welcome to join the YSRCP.