First goal for Cong, TDP in Kadapa

The two major political parties - neither the Congress party nor the Telugu Desam Party had so far announced their nominees to fight the Kadapa Lok Sabha by-elections against Former Congress MP and rebel Kadapa leader YS Jaganmohan Reddy.

The Kadapa by-election now has become a prestigious issue for both these rivals of Mr Jaganmohan Reddy. Whether they will give a ‘fight’ and defeat the former MP or lose their deposits is the contentious issue that has been tormenting both the ‘tall’ parties who could not officially declare their respective candidates so far.

Never before did a situation such as this arise in the ‘district’ which is almost at the centre stage of national politics and is being watched keenly by all concerned.

Political watchers are unwilling to say whether both these party would be able to field the winning horses or will the TDP withdraw in favour of Congress’ nominee. This is one of the many questions being raised.

Meanwhile, the door to door campaign has already been commenced in the district with the respective leaders approaching the voters. Interestingly Mr Jaganmohan Reddy’s rivals began expressing apprehensions that ‘funds’ flow would hamper fair elections.

Mr Jaganmohan Reddy who successfully captured the Kadapa MP seat earlier when his father YS Rajasekhara Reddy was the chief minister, vacated this seat following his exit from the Congress party which had refused to allow him to succeed his father.

Later, he formed his own party ‘YSR Congress Party’ and sponsored his candidates as independents who won three MLC seats trouncing their nearest rivals Congress and TDP in the recent Local Authority Constituency elections.

It was considered a record by the independents backed by the Jagan group, who fought the MLC elections without a party symbol and support. The independents’ win in the MLC polls came as a shocker to the Congress. This was evident by the fact that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy was summoned instantly by the High Command to discuss threadbare as to what went wrong and where.

In this backdrop, the Kadapa and Pulivendula by-elections have been announced and the polling has been fixed on May 8.

The Congress party has not named its official candidate to face Mr Jaganmohan Reddy in Kadapa though YSR’s brother Y S Vivekananda Reddy’s name has been doing the rounds.

For the last two days, the TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu has also been holding consultations with his lieutenants and TDP leaders from Kadapa but could not arrive at a conclusion to find a leader who had the requisite following in the district to take on the YSR Congress chief Jagan Reddy.

The Kadapa strongman of the TDP M V Mysoora Reddy is seen as one of the probable candidates to take on YS Jaganmohan Reddy.

For Pulivendula seat, earlier one of the Kandula brothers had given a tough fight to former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, who had held the seat.

In view of this, the TDP chief may select one among the Kandula brothers - Rajamohan Reddy, Sivanada Reddy and Ramasubba Reddy – to give a fight to Mr Jaganmohan Reddy for Kadapa seat.

The exercise is still in progress, but so far the TDP nominee’s name has not been finalised so far.

One strong reason has been attributed to this delay in naming by both the TDP and Congress circles. This reason is that their contestants should be in a position to retain their deposits in the event of a losing battle in the highly prestigious by-election.