ANANTAPUR: Telugu Desam leadership has been concentrating on trying to strengthen the party in Kadapa district, home turf of YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, after the party cut alliance with BJP. In view of the peculiar situation, TD leadership wanted to develop the party individually for the upcoming general polls.
It may be noted that Telugu Desam had shared Rajampeta Lok Sabha and Kadapa Assembly seats with the BJP during the last general elections. However both of them lost the seats to YSRC candidates. In Rajampet Lok Sabha seat, former Union minister D. Purandreswari was fielded as BJP-TD allied candidate. Even, the TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu had no cordial relationship with his co-brother D. Venkateswar Rao and his wife Purandreswari. He allotted Rajampet Lok Sabha seat to BJP.
Purandreswari was fielded as candidate while YSRC candidate P. Mithun Reddy had a cake walk to victory. In the Rajampet Lok Sabha jurisdiction, YSRC candidate Mithun Reddy won with a majority of 1.74 lakh votes against his nearest rival Purandreswari of BJP. The Lok Sabha candidature had also impacted on connecting Assembly segments.
Meanwhile, the Kadapa urban Assembly segment polls also gave a jolt to the BJP in 2014 polls. Telugu Desam shared Kadapa Assembly seat with BJP during the alliance and fielded Allapureddy Harinath Reddy of BJP against Amzad Bhasha of YSRC. In the elections, TD rebel candidate K. Durgaprasad was also in the race. YSRC candidate Amzad Bhasha got 95,073 votes while BJP candidate got just 5,350 votes and TD rebel candidate got 49,872 votes. BJP candidate could not even retain deposit in the last elections. Telugu Desam district unit president Srinivasa Reddy hoped that the party would strengthen more in the district. "We could not prove our strength either in Rajampet Lok Sabha or Kadapa Assembly seats in the last elections. We can easily retain both seats in the next polls without the alliance with BJP," he observed.
