Ever since Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced that he would announce the first list of party candidates for the forthcoming assembly elections in the state, speculations have started doing rounds in the media circles on whether he would drop any MLAs and give chances for fresh faces.
One of the names that has come up for discussion is that of Paritala Sriram, son of late minister Paritala Ravindra and present minister Paritala Sunitha.
Sriram has been actively involved in party politics in Anantapur district for quite some time and has emerged as a powerful power centre in the district.
The party leaders have almost come to the feeling that Sriram would be an obvious choice, but are not able to say which constituency he would be allotted.
Though there are a few seats which Sriram can choose, like Penugonda, Dharmavaram, Kalayadurg and Anantapur, the sitting MLAs are not ready to vacate their seats and if any of these is offered to Sriram, there would be a big revolt.
According to some reports, Naidu is contemplating fielding Sriram from Hindupur assembly constituency which is a safe seat for him to win.
However, it is being held by none other than Naidu’s brother-in-law Nandamuri Balakrishna and one wonders whether he would vacate his seat for Sriram.
Sources said Naidu is planning to evict Balakrishna from Hindupur and offer him Lok Sabha seat from the same Hindupur.
Apparently, intelligence reports said Balakrishna might lose the assembly elections and if Sriram replaces Balayya in Hindupur, he would not only win his seat, but also secure the victory of Balakrishna from Hindupur parliamentary constituency.
Nadu is not happy with the performance of sitting TDP MP from Hindupur Nimmala Kishtappa.
In case, Balayya is afraid of contesting LS polls, Naidu might offer him Rajya Sabha nomination and Kishtappa can be back as TDP MP!
