The choice of former Andhra Pradesh minister Botsa Satyanarayana as the YSR Congress party candidate for the by-election to the state legislative council from the combined Visakhapatnam local bodies’ constituency has raised many eyebrows.
Botsa is one of the senior-most leaders of the party and had been an MP once and an MLA several times. So, nobody in the party expected that Botsa would agree to contest the by-election to the MLC seat under the local bodies’ quota.
Sources said Jagan preferred Botsa because he thought the latter’s seniority would benefit the party in the legislative council. Moreover, Jagan believes that if Botsa becomes an MLC, he can effectively challenge the TDP in the legislative council.
It is learned that Botsa had set a pre-condition to accept the party ticket for the MLC seat. He reportedly demanded that he be made the leader of the opposition in the legislative council, replacing Lella Appi Reddy, who was recently nominated for the post.
Botsa believes that if he gains the leader of opposition status, he would have cabinet rank and some status in the Upper House. He told Jagan that he could not work under a junior leader like Lella Appi Reddy; and Jagan has reportedly agreed to his demand.
Sources, however, said several YSRCP leaders from Visakhapatnam, including former MLAs and even the municipal corporators, councilors, ZPTCs, and MPTCs, are not happy with Botsa's candidature for the MLC seat.
Their contention is that Botsa is from the neighboring district of Vizianagaram and has not been a voter of Visakhapatnam local bodies’ constituency. From the beginning, the local YSRCP leaders have been opposing Botsa's domination in Visakhapatnam politics.
There were quite a few aspirants for the party ticket for the MLC seat, including Budi Muthyala Naidu, Gudivada Amarnath, Kola Guruvulu, Pasupuleti Balaraju, Suryanarayana Raju, Chintalapudi Venkatramaiah, and P Uma Shankar Ganesh.
“They are all from Visakhapatnam. Yet, Jagan preferred an outsider like Botsa for the MLC seat. Don’t be surprised if there is cross-voting from the YSRCP to the TDP, just to prevent Botsa from winning the elections,” an analyst from Visakhapatnam said.
