NDA Opts Out of Visakhapatnam MLC By-Polls
Visakhapatnam: The NDA alliance decided not to contest the MLC by-polls for the local body authorities constituency of undivided Visakhapatnam. Chief Minister and TD national president Nara Chandrababu Naidu decided in consultation with the alliance partners and conveyed it to the party leaders in a teleconference held on Tuesday.
This decision made it easy for the election of former minister and senior YSRC leader Botsa Satyanarayana, who filed his nomination papers on Monday. Satyanarayana held a series of election meetings with ZPTCs, MPTCs, corporators and counselors of erstwhile Visakhapatnam district during the last five days.
Talking to reporters in Visakhapatnam, home minister Vangalapudi Anitha said TD was practicing value-based politics and abstained from the contest. "During the YSRC government, we were not allowed to file nominations to the local bodies which made us abstain from contesting this by-election. Now we are not contesting. If we want we can win the elections as a lot of YSRC leaders are willing to join the alliance,’’ Anitha said.
Earlier in the teleconference, Chandrababu Naidu told his party leaders that the alliance would not contest the elections as it wanted to practice dignified politics. ``Winning is not important, peoples’ opinion is crucial,’’ he told the leaders. Though several MLAs came forward to contest the elections, Chandrababu Naidu told them it was not necessary to put so much effort into one MLC seat and asked them to rather focus on the development of the region.