YSRC confident of victory in Tirupati LS bypoll
Amaravati, Mar 17 : Buoyed by the landslide itsecured in the just-concluded elections to urban local bodiesin Andhra Pradesh, the ruling YSR Congress seems to be takingsuccess in the coming bypoll to the Tirupati Lok Sabha seatfor granted and only betting on the victory margin.
The YSR Congress on Sunday swept the elections to theULBs, literally burying the main opposition Telugu Desam partyin 75 municipalities and 11 municipal corporations.
“We hope to win Tirupati by a majority of at leastthree lakh votes.It will be higher than the last time (2019),going by the peoples mood that has reflected in the ULBelections,” state Panchayat Raj Minister P R C Reddy, whohails from Chittoor district, said.
Notification for the by-election will be issued onMarch 23 and the last date for filing nominations is March 30.
Polling is scheduled to be held on April 17 andcounting of votes on May 2.
The YSRC won the Tirupati Lok Sabha (Scheduled Castereserved) seat in 2014 and again in 2019, improving its voteshare from 47.84 per cent to 55.03 per cent.
Balli Durga Prasad Rao, who won in 2019 by a recordmargin of 2.28 lakh votes, died of COVID-19 on September 16last year, necessitating the bypoll.
The YSRC nominated party chief Y S Jagan MohanReddys physiotherapist M Gurumurthy as its candidate for thebypoll.
The TDP chose former Union Minister of StatePanabaka Lakshmi again.
Lakshmi lost the election in 2019 to Durga PrasadRao.
The BJP is jumping into the fray in alliance withthe Jana Sena and is seeking to reclaim the seat it won onlyonce in 1999, then in the company of the TDP.
In the 2019 general election, the BJP polled a mere16,125 votes.
In fact, the BSP polled 20,971 votes here.
Names of former IAS officers K Ratna Prabha andDasari Srinivasulu are being tipped as the BJPs prospectivecandidates.
Ratna Prabha retired as Chief Secretary of Karnatakawhile Srinivasulu retired as a Principal Secretary in the APgovernment.
The Congress is expected to field former UnionMinister Chinta Mohan yet again, the old warhorse whopreviously represented Tirupati for five terms in the LokSabha.
Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency is spread over sevenAssembly segments in Chittoor and Sri Potti Sriramulu Nelloredistricts.
Over 25 per cent of the 15.75 lakh voters in theparliamentary segment belong to the Scheduled Castes whilethere are about five lakh electors belonging to the backwardclasses.
Sullurpeta (SC), Sarvepalli, Guduru (SC) andVenkatagiri Assembly segments fall in SPS Nellore district andTirupati, Satyavedu (SC) and Srikalahasti are in Chittoordistrict.
The YSRC, by and large, appears to be in acomfortable position in all the segments but it is said to befacing some internal trouble in Guduru, where former MP fromTirupati V Varaprasad is now the MLA.
The ruling party is, however, unperturbed, given thecurrent political trend in the state. PTI DBVBN BN
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)