The alliance with Jana Sena Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party is expectedly causing a lot of troubles for the Telugu Desam Party headed by former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
The TDP chief has been trying to convince the party leaders who were aspiring for the tickets in the constituencies allotted to the alliance partners.
He could appease some new aspirants and middle-level party leaders stating that they should make sacrifices for the sake of alliances, if the party has to come to power.
But he is not able to handle the pressure from senior party leaders, who have been serving the party for several years.
For example, senior leader and former minister K S Jawahar from Kovvur assembly constituency in West Godavari district is upset for being denied the ticket this time.
The seat has been allotted to Muppidi Venkateshwar Rao, who Naidu team felt has got higher marks in the internal survey compared to Jawahar.
In the last elections, Jawahar contested from Thiruvur but lost. So, he expected that if not Kovvur, he would be given the ticket at least from Thiruvur, but Naidu already announced the name of Kolikapudi Srinivas Rao.
Angry with Naidu’s decision, Jawahar is getting ready to jump into the YSRCP. He did not relent even after getting pacified by party in-charge Sujaya Venkata Krishna Ranga Rao. He feels insulted for being denied the ticket.
The latest one to raise a banner of revolt against Naidu is former minister Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy, who represented Pendurthi assembly constituency. Hoping that he would get the party ticket at any cost, he began his poll preparations for a long time.
But to his shock, Naidu allotted the Pendurthy seat to Jana Sena Party as part of alliance. He was so terribly upset that he did not respond to the calls from the TDP high command.
According to sources, Bandaru got in touch with YSRCP leadership, which invited him into the party. YSRCP president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy reportedly told him that he might not be able to give him the party ticket from Pendurthy, which was allotted to sitting MLA Adeep Raj, but he would consider his name for Anakapalle Lok Sabha seat.
If Jagan confirms the LS seat to Bandaru, he might defect to the YSRCP along with disgruntled TDP leaders in Yelamanchili, Pendurthy, Anakapalli and Visakhapatnam (south) which were allotted to Jana Sena Party soon.
However, his son-in-law and TDP candidate for Srikakulam Lok Sabha seat Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu is said to be requesting Bandaru to drop the plan to defect to the YSRCP. Bandaru is expected to take a call in a day or two, sources said.
