Chandrababu Naidu faces protesters, refuses to budge
Vijayawada: Telugu Desam chief N. Chandrababu Naidu completed his campaign in Krishna district here on Saturday amidst protests staged by aspirants of the various constituencies.
The protesters raised slogans against the candidates announced by the TD on Friday and demanded that the party leadership replace the new candidates. However, the TD chief only changed the candidate in the Mangalagiri constituency.
Prodduturu MLA Linga Reddy met Mr Naidu along with his family members in a private hotel where the TD chief was staying. Their meeting was over in just a few minutes. However, Mr Linga Reddy’s followers continued to stage protest in front of the hotel.
They all wanted Mr Naidu to give the ticket to the sitting MLA. Even, Mr Reddy’s wife Lakshmi Prasanna burst into tears in front of the supporters. She tried to explain to the party chief that their family had been working to strengthen the party for the past several years. But Mr Naidu remained unmoved and he made no promises. Instead, he said the ticked was already allotted to former MLA Varadarajula Reddy.
TD East constituency aspirant M.V.R. Chowdary and his followers also staged protest in front of the hotel while TD activists of Mangalagiri raised slogans against the candidature of industrialist Tulasi Ramachandra Prabhu, however, in this case, Mr Naidu changed Mr Prabhu’s candidature and allotted the ticket to local leader Chiranjeevi. The police had to arrest some of the protesters to make way for Mr Naidu. let Mr Naidu leave for his Guntur tour.