Jagan forced Naidu to announce his list early this time

Vijayawada: It would appear that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy forced Telugu Desam chief N. Chandrababu Naidu to announce his list of nominees for the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls a bit early this time, unlike his usual practice of naming them at the last minute.

In the past, Naidu used to drag the announcement of several names till the last minute of withdrawal of nominations. He would ask more than one from his party to file nominations for a seat and give his final work at the last moment only.

This time, Jagan Mohan Reddy as YSRC chief announced his list of nominees for all 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha segments much ahead of the announcement of poll schedule so that the nominees got adequate time to reach out to the people and explain about a series of welfare schemes and developmental works taken up by the YSRC government.

The TD chief took the cue and he too tried to follow suit, though a bit later than the YSRC announcement of names.

As the Telugu Desam forged an alliance with the Jana Sena and the BJP for the elections, they shared among them the 175 Assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats. The TD got its share of 144 Assembly segments and 17 Lok Sabha constituencies.

Naidu announced the list of contestants for all the segments in three phases. However, there are demands for change of nominees from one or two segments to accommodate others who claim to have a better chance of winning.

For instance, though TD nominated Ch. Bhupesh Reddy for Kadapa Lok Sabha segment, there is a proposal from BJP nominee from Jammalamadugu Assembly segment for change of nominees, vice versa, claiming that both will be having better chances of win. Top leaders from both TD and BJP are yet to take a decision on the proposal.

Similarly, in the Undi Assembly segment, TD has nominated Mantena Rama Raju. There is a proposal to replace him with K. Raghu Rama Krishna Raju. The TD leadership is yet to take a final decision.

Telugu Desam leaders say that the early announcement of nominees is helping them forge ahead on the campaign front. “We can reach out to more people and persuade them to support us.”

Telugu Desam leader Gorantla Butchaiah Choudhary who is party nominee for Rajahmundry rural Assembly segment said, “Though there was some confusion initially to finalise the names due to TD forging an alliance with JS and BJP, that is old story now.”

Similar is the opinion from other contestants who say that the current elections are witnessing unprecedented developments with the ruling and the opposition parties making claims and counter-claims on various issues and complaining to the election commission on poll code violations etc.