Hyderabad: YSR Congress president Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s choice of candidates for various posts has become highly unpredictable. Quoting various ground level survey reports, he has been changing constituency level in-charges who will be projected as the possible candidates for the general elections.
With the help of his cousin Y.S. Anil Reddy, who was made in-charge of organising periodical surveys and reports, Jagan Mohan Reddy has been replacing candidates and often axing those who have been working for the party for many years and spending money on both the party and their own expected candidature.
Neither Jagan Mohan Reddy’s uncle Y.V. Subba Reddy nor his political affairs adviser Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, are involved in the exercise of choosing candidates, and it is only Jagan Mohan Reddy and Anil Reddy who are doing everything.
Jagan Mohan Reddy has frequently told party leaders that he needs candidates with strong financial support for Lok Sabha seats, and who can help Assembly candidates in their LS constituency.
“I can’t afford losing a single seat on account of bad candidates,” he has been telling his partymen.
He even refused to oblige his uncle Y.V. Subba Reddy for the Ongole Lok Sabha seat. Subba Reddy ran the show when Jagan was in jail for 16 months. But he was told by the YSRC?president that he needs him at party headquarters. It seems that one Suresh Reddy is being projected as the LS nominee for Ongole.
According to sources, Dr Nannapaneni Sudha, daughter of TD MLC Nannapaneni Rajakumari, who was projected as the Assembly candidate from Vinukonda in Guntur district, was replaced by Tirumala dairy proprietor Brahma Naidu.
Naidu was offered the Pedakurapadu segment, but is eyeing Vinukonda on the strength of being the candidate of the erstwhile Praja Rajyam in the last elections. Dr Sudha has spent lakhs of rupees on her candidature only to be told she will not be the party candidate because she is unable to take everyone along and public opinion is not in her favour.
Similarly, Lella Appireddy who was tipped to run against state agriculture minister Kanna Laxminarayana in Guntur was replaced. For the Salur constituency in Vizianagaram district, sitting Congress MLA P. Rajanna Dora who was set to join the YSRC, will be declared the candidate, replacing the local leader.
Former MLA Narayana Swamy of Chittoor district, and another former MLA from Chittoor named Manohar said that they were not going to be the candidates. Even party bigwig and former Nandyala MP, Bhuma Nagireddy, was asked to vacate the Nandyala Lok Sabha seat to accommodate sitting Congress MP, S.P.Y. Reddy who joined the YSR party recently.
It is also presumed that along with Congress stalwart from Srikakulam and former Revenue Minister, Dharmana Prasada Rao, five Congress MLAs will also join the YSR Party. "In that case it will be a repeat of the same candidates for the same seats, of course with a change of party. But what will happen to the existing leaders who are aspiring for tickets?" asked a leader.
Former IAS officer T. Chandrasekhar has been named for the Eluru Lok Sabha constituency, replacing Movva Anand who told Jaganmohan Reddy that he could not bear the election expenditure expected from him by the party leadership. In fact, Chandrasekhar is not a native of Eluru and unsuccessfully contested as a Prajarajyam candidate from Guntur in the last Lok Sabha election.
The latest information is that the Kurnool Lok Sabha seat will be contested by Renuka, wife of Neelakantham, the owner of Meridian Schools, Hyderabad.
Potluri Vara Prasad of PVR Ventures is the Lok Sabha candidate from Vijayawada. With the death of Kukkala Nageswara Rao, former Krishna ZP chairman, who was expected to get the Bandar Lok Sabha seat, the talk is that former MP Vallabhaneni Balasowri will be the chosen candidate.
Balasowri was earlier assured of a ticket from Guntur, but has been persuaded to move to Bandar. In his place at Guntur, Narni Srinivasa Rao, a close relative of Chandrababu Naidu, TDP president, and father-in-law of Junior NTR, is being promoted.
"We are not sure whether the latest names doing the rounds will remain till the last or whether there will be further changes," quipped a key leader of the party.
