YSRC Happy with TD-BJP Discord in Dharmavaram Assembly Seat
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2024-03-17 17:59 GMT
Anantapur: Ruling YSRC party is all too happy with the simmering differences between Telugu Desam and BJP workers in the Dharmavaram assembly segment of Satya Sai district.
As per the agreement between the TD-JS-BJP alliance, Dharmavaram constituency has gone to the BJP, which is fielding former MLA G. Suryanarayana from the seat.
But TD in-charge of Dharmavaram Paritala Sreeram is opposing the candidature of Suryanarayana, who quit TD soon after facing defeat in the 2019 polls and joined BJP, along with Rajya Sabha member Sujana Chowdary and C.M. Ramesh.
Dharmavaram constituency is highly factional with decades’ old history of rivalry between two families – Paritala and Gangula families, whose family heads from past three generations have been killed in violent fights.
Paritala Ravindra, father of Sreeram, had once been the dominant player in the Dharmavaram area. Paritala Ravindra has been acting as TD party in-charge for past five years after his mother Sunitha shifted to the Rapthadu assembly constituency.
Though Paritala Sreeram had reportedly been assured by party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu that Dharmavaram seat will be allotted to him, the constituency has ended up going to the BJP as part seat sharing between the three parties.
Further, Suryanarayana has succeeded in convincing the BJP high command to allot Dharmavaram constituency to him. The former TD MLA is even using photos of Chandrababu Naidu for the past few weeks to strengthen his candidature from Dharmavaram.
However, neither Paritala Sreeram nor other TD cadres are happy with Suryanarayana’s candidature from Dharmavaram, though they may relent in case BJP fields a candidate other than Suryanarayana.
All this has come as a sweet augury for YSRC candidate and sitting MLA K. Venkatrami Reddy. The MLA has also acquired familiarity among voters in Dharmavaram with his exclusive Good Morning programme. Many videos of him interacting with Dharmavaram people are viral on social media.
A senior TD leader from Anantapur observed that striking a compromise between Sriram and Suryanarayana will be a tough task even for Chandrababu Naidu, owing to two-decade-long rivalry between the two rivals.