The ‘Modi-for-PM’ campaign scheduled to be launched by BJP senior leader M. Venkaaiah Naidu in the city on Saturday is expected to give fillip to the party in West Godavari district. He will address a rally at Alluri Sitarama Raju Stadium at 3p.m., along with his party residual State unit president K. Haribabu and film star U.V. Krishnam Raju.
Kotagiri Sridhar, son of former Minister Kotagiri Vidyadhara Rao, a ticket hopeful from the Eluru Lok Sabha segment, is taking the lead in organising the rally. In the run up to the programme, Koneru Suresh Babu, founder of a city-based corporate college, expressed his willingness to join the BJP with a hope to secure the party ticket for the Eluru Assembly segment.
Although the BJP’s limited mass base in the district may not allow its candidates to get through the general elections on its own, the party leadership is confident that the BJP-TDP alliance, which is yet to be materialised, would turn into a win-win combination.
This perceived positive factor, coupled with the `Modi wave’, has attracted some new sections from different walks of public life like Mr. Sridhar and Mr. Suresh Babu into the party’s fold.
Seat sharingThe BJP district leadership is getting ready to secure either of two Lok Sabha seats—Narsapur and Eluru- Kovvuru (SC reserved) and either Unguturu or Undi Assembly segments in seat-sharing with the TDP.
Even as the fate of rebel star and former Union Minister U.V. Krishnam Raju, who represented Narsapur during the NDA regime, is hanging in balance, the new entrant, Kanumuri Raghuramakrishnam Raju, who defected from the YSRC, emerged as a strong contender for the segment.
He was said to have played an instrumental role in providing a channel for film star Pawan Kalyan to meet Mr. Narendra Modi to explore possibilities for an alliance with his fledgling Jana Sena Party.
