After a lot of brainstorming and unsuccessful attempts to lure the opposition voters, the Telugu Desam Party led by Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has opted out of the race for the by-elections to the MLC seat from combined Visakhapatnam local bodies’ constituency.
A decision to this effect was taken by Naidu late on Monday night, after hectic deliberations with his party leaders. Apparently, the TDP chief has realised that it is difficult to poach another 150 corporators, councillors, MPTC and ZPTC members from the YSRCP.
Out of 838 votes in the constituency, the YSRCP has as many as 530 votes, where as the TDP-Jana Sena-BJP combine has only around 300 votes, that too, even after the defection of a few YSRCP corporators and councillors into the TDP and Jana Sena in the recent past.
The decision of the TDP not to contest the MLC elections has cleared the decks for the election of senior YSRCP leader and former minister Botsa Satyanarayana as the member of the state legislative assembly almost unanimously.
There is one independent candidate in race, but his nomination might not be considered due to lack of support from the constituency voters.
After announcing the decision to opt out of the race, Naidu tried to put up a gentleman face, saying he had taken the decision to play fair and dignified politics.
“It is not difficult for the party to attract the YSRCP MLAs, if we put in some more efforts. But we did not want to create an impression that we have bulldozed the election,” Naidu told the party leaders.
The TDP leaders, too, appreciated Naidu for his statesmanship and dignified politics.
“In the last local body elections, the TDP stayed away from the contest because of the highhanded behaviour of the YSRCP. We don’t want to follow their style,” he said, adding that he would follow certain values in politics.
