Hyderabad: In Santhanautalapadu Assembly seat, Congress MLA B.N. Vijaya Kumar who joined the TD was issued a B form by party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu.
The segment went to the BJP when the alliance was formed. Mr Vijaya Kumar has refused to withdraw his papers and has decided to take on the BJP’s official nominee Dara Sambaiah.
Similar situations arose in Guntakal and Kadapa where TD nominees Jitender Gowd and Durga Prasad Rao remain the TD’s official candidates as they have B-forms given by the party president.
The TD leadership averted a similar confrontation in Kaikalur and Rajahmundry Urban Assembly segments when TD candidates withdrew in favour of BJP candidates.
“We are hopeful that the TD leadership will immediately take action against their candidates and see that the TD cadre work unitedly for the BJP,” said Sudheesh Rambhatla, BJP’s Seemandhra spokesperson.
TD MP Sujana Chowdary said the party will talk to the three rebel candidates who refuse to budge to persuade them to retire in favour of the BJP. The Congress candidates in Seemandhra who withdrew from contest are Jitendrappa (Kalyandurg) and V. Appalanaidu (Anakapalle). Mr Jitendrappa also sent in his resignation from the party and announced his support to the YSR Congress candidate. Incidentally, the seat was held by APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy, who has shifted to Penukonda this time.
There are other rebels in the TD ranks, too, who are contesting their own party’s official nominees. Dr Babji refused to retire from the contest despite Mr Naidu personally calling upon him to do so in favour of the party’s official nominee.
In Bheemili, TD Lok Sabha ticket aspirant and former director of IT giant, Kenexa Technologies, Aneeta Sakuru, is in the fray as a TD rebel candidate.
Former minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao is contesting on a TD nomination in Bheemili as a rebel against the official candidate.
In Araku, former MLA Kumbha Ravi Babu, who was initially chosen as the TD candidate and later rejected, is contesting as an independent candidate. The TD gave the B Form to sitting MLA Severa Soma after his supporters registered a strong protest against Mr Ravi Babu’s candidature and went on the rampage, even setting Mr Ravi Babu’s guest house in Araku on fire.
Similarly, sitting TD MLA T.V. Rama Rao remains in the fray as a rebel. In the Gudur Assembly segment in Nellore district, sitting TD MLA Balli Durga Prasad Rao refused to withdraw and will contest as a rebel to take on the party’s official candidate.
