YSR Congress party leadership appears to be in a state of confusion in the distribution of tickets among the party leaders contesting the upcoming assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh, as party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is facing stiff resistance from several candidates over change of candidates.
The YSRC president, who was supposed to release the third list of candidates, mostly MPs, had to postpone the same, as he is now compelled to make changes in the list of candidates due to resistance from sitting MPs and MLAs.
For example, Jagan is learnt to have decided to deny the ticket to sitting Ongole MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, unless he deposits a considerable amount of party fund, besides attacking Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu, his family and the previous TDP government’s decisions between 2014 and 2019.
But Magunta refused to the conditions and left for Hyderabad. Similarly, Ongole MLA Balineni Srinivas Reddy, who waited for a long time to get audience with Jagan, also left for Hyderabad in a huff. Both Balineni and Magunta are reportedly discussing their future plans in Hyderabad.
Though the third list has not come out, according to the leaks given to the media, there seem to be a lot of surprising changes in the list, causing a lot of disgruntlements among the candidates as well as those who are likely to be denied the tickets.
Some of the surprising changes include shifting of sitting Tirupati MP Gurumurthy to Sullurpet assembly constituency, in place of sitting MLA Kiliveru Sanjeevaiah.
In place of Gurumurthy, Satyaveedu MLA Koneti Adimulam will contest for Tirupati Lok Sabha elections. Sanjeevaiah has been moved to Sathaveedu.
In Narasaraopet Lok Sabha constituency, Jagan is learnt to have selected a young leader Nagarjuna Yadav, who is more active on social media than in the field, in place of sitting MP Lavu Krishna Devarayalu. It was surprising even to the local YSRCP cadres, sources said.
Similarly, the names of minister and Alur MLA Gummanur Jayaram for Kurnool MP seat, popular director V V Vinayak for Rajahmundry MP seat, Vizianagaram zilla parishad chairman Majji Srinivas for Vizianagaram MP seat, former MP Botsa Jhansi for Visakhapatnam MP seat, Chalamalasetty Sunil for Kakinada MP seat and comedian-actor Ali for Nandyal MP seat, were also leaked to the media.
While sitting Vijayawada MP Kesineni Nani would be the YSRCP candidate this time, Chintalapudi MLA Unnamatla Eliza is tipped to be Amalapuram MP, Kilaru Padma as Anakapalle MP and Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy as Nellore MP.
It is not immediately known which candidate will react how, once the list is formally out!
