Kurnool: The Nandyal bypolls should have been a cakewalk for the TD. Instead, the Nandyal bypolls is being played out with full drama and action. The elections per se will make no difference to the existing power of the TD that will happily continue its full term till 2019 with a solid majority in the Assembly. But it is not taking any chances and has deployed six ministers and 60 MLAs in Nandyal for the bypolls to be held on Wednesday.
In fact, this bypoll would have gone unnoticed if YSRC had stayed away from the election as was initially expected. After the sudden death of sitting MLA Bhuma Nagi Reddy in March this year, the bypolls had become mandatory. It was believed that the TD candidate Bhuma Brahmananda Reddy would be unanimously elected without any opposition from the YSRCP.
In fact, soon after the Chief Minister announced Reddy’s candidature, the TD president of Kurnool district, Somisetty Venkateswarlu, appealed to Opposition leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and asked them to cooperate for the unanimous election of the TDP candidate.
He had also said that as the TD had not fielded a candidate in the by-elections after the sudden death of YSRC Allagadda MLA Sobha Nagi Reddy in 2014, the YSRC should do the same and not field a candidate. For a while, it did seem as though that was the way it would be. Especially when, tourism minister Bhuma Akhila Priya met Y.S. Vijaymma, mother of the opposition chief, Jagan Mohan Reddy in Kurnool.
But suddenly, Jagan announced that the party would be contesting. He picked on Shilpa Mohan Reddy, who had defected from TD and fielded him as candidate. And thus started a free for all. The Nandyal bypolls will go down in the history of AP as one of the most expensive and vigorously fought elections. Though winning is being considered a given for the TD, the Chief Minister and his band of ministers took no chance and went full throttle to campaign for the elections.
First it was Nara Lokesh, son of N. Chandrababu Naidu who came to Nandyal, assessed the ground reality and devised strategies.
This was followed by municipal administration minister, Narayana who visited and stayed there for weeks. Followed by deputy chief minister Chinna Rajappa and ministers Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, Amarnath Reddy, Adinarayana Reddy, and others.
