Division within NDA makes north Andhra Teachers’ MLC seat a keen contest

Only the Telugu Desam Party has declared direct support to the Andhra Pradesh Teachers’ Federation (APTF) candidate Pakalapati Raghu Varma.

Former MLC and BJP leader P.V.N. Madhav said RSS-backed AP Upadhyaya Sangham would be supporting PRTU’s candidate Gade Srinivasulu Naidu.

However, former Visakhapatnam district BJP president Rabindra Reddy sought to clarify that Madhav has announced support to Srinivasulu Naidu in his individual capacity. He insisted that the BJP is remaining neutral in these elections.

In the interim, the recently elected president of Visakhapatnam BJP unit Parasurama Raju told this correspondent that alliance partners have not discussed the MLC elections. Hence BJP is staying away from the polls.

There are 10 candidates in the fray. Among them, PDF candidate Koredla Vijaya Gowri (UTF), Raghu Varma (APTF) and PRTU’s Srinivasulu Naidu are the main contenders. The MLC seat has 22,493 voters and polling for the MLC seat will be held on February 27 at 123 polling stations.

State TD president Palla Srinivasa Rao maintains that Telugu Desam and Jana Sena are supporting Raghu Varma. Left parties are backing Vijaya Gowri and BJP’s teachers wing is supporting Srinivasulu Naidu.

Srinivasulu Naidu had won two consecutive terms as teacher MLC. He had been close to the TD till recently. But he is now maintaining a distance from Telugu Desam after it announced support to Raghu Varma in these elections.

UTF Teachers' Association has fielded Vijaya Gowri as the PDF candidate. She recently retired as a teacher and has entered the election fray. She is the state secretary of the UTF Association, which supported Raghu Varma in the last elections.

“Vijaya Gowri has better chances to win these elections. She is a highly respected teacher and understands the core problems of teachers,” said local CPM leader R.S.V.K. Kumar. He has accused the TD leadership of politicising the Teachers’ MLC election.