Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s plan to aggressively by announcing the names of candidates for contesting the next assembly and Lok Sabha elections seem to be backfiring on him.
Normally, it is believed that the selection of candidates in a way will help any party, because they would be among the people to consolidate their support base till the elections are held.
At the same time, it is also disadvantageous to the party to some extent as there is a possibility of the other aspirants for party tickets indulging in sabotage by joining hands with rival parties or contest as rebel candidates thereby playing a spoil sport with the selected candidates.
Naidu is now facing a similar situation in several constituencies.
During a review of the party in Chittoor district, the TDP chief announced the candidature of former TTD trust board member Challa Ramachandra Reddy alias Challa Babu to contest against Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy in Punganur assembly constituency.
In the last assembly elections in 2019, Naidu had fielded N Aneesha Reddy, but she was defeated by Peddireddy by a huge margin of 40,000 votes. Now, Naidu announced that Challa Babu would be the TDP candidate.
In fact, in 2021 itself, Challa was made in-charge of Punganur, but there was no resistance.
When Naidu announced his name as the party candidate for next elections, there was an uproar. Senior TDP leader S K Ramana Reddy and his followers raised slogans against Challa Babu and walked out of Naidu’s meeting.
Similar revolt was witnessed when Naidu was announcing the candidature of Shankar Yadav for Tamballapalle constituency, which is presently represented by Peddireddy’s borhter Dwarakanath Reddy. There were protests against Naidu’s choice.
In Annamayya district review, too, Naidu had to face revolt from the party workers between Chengal Rayudu and Jaganmohan Raju groups. The party president had to shout at them and send them out.
Similar scenes were witnessed in Railway Koduru constituency, when two groups aspiring for the party tickets clashed with each other.
