Nagarjunasagar bypoll: BJP leader files nomination even before party's nod

Hyderabad: Before the BJP could finalise its nominee for the Nagarjunasagar bypoll, K. Niveditha Reddy, an aspirant for the party ticket, filed her nomination papers on Friday, taking the leadership by surprise.

This came about even as party state president Bandi Sanjay Kumar was holding meetings with party seniors and Nalgonda leaders to finalise the candidate after analysing data from the constituency, including on the community votes. He also spoke with ticket aspirants about the situation in the constituency and their action plan to win the election.

The aspirants are confident that they can win the seat using the ‘Dubbak strategy’, and on the strength of the perception that only the BJP can stand up to the TRS.

Apart from Niveditha Reddy, the other front-runners for the ticket are Indrasena Reddy, Anjaiah Yadav and Dr Ravi Naik.

Speaking with the media later, Sanjay slammed finance minister T. Harish Rao over his remarks against him. He said he had written to the Jal Shakti minister to stop construction of illegal projects on the Krishna basin by the Andhra Pradesh government, and had not asked for stopping Telangana state projects.

He said this was an attempt to divert the attention of the house with “false statements” against BJP and him. The MP alleged that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had cheated the Lok Sabha when he was an MP with forged signatures. He said the BJP would lodge a complaint on the matter.