With Thursday being an auspicious day as per the Hindu almanac, there was a flood of nominations by political heavyweights and serious aspirants. Several top leaders of political parties, including YSR Congress president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, filed their nominations.
Mr. Jagan Reddy filed his nomination for Pulivendula Assembly constituency in Kadapa and declared his family assets worth Rs.416 crore, including Rs.72 crore property in the name of his wife Bharathi. He, however, declared in his affidavit that neither he nor his wife own any vehicles.
YSR Congress honorary president Y.S. Vijayamma accompanied by her daughter Sharmila filed her nomination for Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha seat amid fanfare. Later addressing party workers at Visakhapatnam, she said she would be available to local people and fulfil her son Mr. Jagan Reddy’s promise to transform Visakhapatnam into a green and pollution-free city. Nara Lokesh, son of TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu, filed nominations on behalf of his father for Kuppam Assembly constituency in Chittoor district. Before filing his nominations, he performed puja at Varadaraju Swamy temple and went in a huge rally that took over two hours to reach the office of the Returning Officer. Emphasising the need for Mr. Naidu becoming the Chief Minister for development of Seemandhra and also for comprehensive development of Kuppam, he urged people to elect Mr. Naidu with the highest majority in the State.
In an interesting twist to the alliance troubles between TDP-BJP, TDP leader Gorantla Buchaiah Choudhary filed nomination for Rajahmundry Urban Assembly seat in East Godavari though the party was yet to give him B-form. K. Raghurama Krishnamraju filed two sets of nominations each on behalf of both TDP and BJP for Narsapuram Lok Sabha constituency in West Godavari. His wife Ramadevi filed nomination as BJP candidate. Earlier, Gokaraju Gangaraju filed three sets of nomination as BJP candidate for the same seat. Nallari Kishan Kumar Reddy, younger brother of the JSP president N. Kiran Kumar Reddy filed his nomination as the JSP candidate for the Piler assembly constituency. Party sources said that Kiran's brother was a dummy, while Mr. Kiran is all set to file his nomination with much fanfare at Piler on April 19, the last day of the nominations. There is also speculation that he might contest from the Rajampet Lok Sabha constituency. YSRCP nominee Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy filed his nomination for the Nellore Lok Sabha seat in Nellore and exuded confidence that his party would win with a good majority. Another party nominee for Anantapur parliamentary seat, Ananta Venkatrami Reddy filed his papers at the collectorate.
