A peculiar situation is prevailing in the YSR Congress party. While there is a lot of demand from the party leaders for the party tickets to contest the assembly elections, not many leaders are evincing interest in contesting the Lok Sabha elections.
So far, Jagan has finalised the candidates for 10 Lok Sabha seats out of 25.
Some of the sitting MPs like Margani Bharat from Rajahmundry, M V V Satyanarayana from Visakhapatnam, Goddeti Madhavi from Araku and Talari Rangaiah from Anantapur were reluctant to contest the Lok Sabha seats again and they were shifted to the assembly seats.
A couple of others like Gorantla Madhav, Dr Sanjeev Kumar and were dropped as they have no chances of winning, while Tirupati MP M Gurumurthy, though keen on contesting the MP elections again, has been moved to Satyaveedu assembly constituency, much against his wishes.
Some others have been shifted from assembly constituencies to Lok Sabha constituencies, though they are not interested.
For instance, Gummanuru Jayaram was moved from Aluru constituency to Kurnool Lok Sabha seat, but he is not interested in contesting. Now, Jagan is looking for another candidate, most probably Kurnool mayor B Y Ramaiah might be given the ticket.
For Narsaraopet Lok Sabha seat, the YSRCP chief had to do a lot of brainstorming as he wanted to field a BC candidate. Finally, he is learnt to have asked former minister from Nellore Anil Kumar Yadav to contest from there, but it is learnt he is also not keen.
In Ongole, though sitting MP Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy is ready to contest, Jagan doesn’t want to give him ticket but could not find a right candidate. He is now roping in Chandragiri MLA Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy to contest from Ongole.
In Anakapalle, too, Jagan is finding it difficult to select the right candidate, after sitting MP B V Satyavathi did not evince interest to contest again. He has reportedly asked industries minister Gudivada Amarnath, now Anakapalli MLA, to contest as an MP. But he, too, is not interested; and so, the name of Peela Rama Kumari is being considered.
Even industrialist Chalamalasetty Sunil, who is tipped to be the YSRCP candidate for Kakinada, is said to be not interested in contesting, as he has lost the seat three times.
From Rajahmundry, the party might finalise Dr Guduru Srinivas as the candidate, after Bharat dropped out.
In Machilipatnam, after Balashowry’s exit, the party is struggling to find a right candidate. Finally, Jagan is left with no option but to rope in former minister Perni Nani for the LS seat.
