Telugu Desam Party caught in ticket tangle

Not all new entrants will get ticket. It is also important that they should bring they should bring their cadre of their old party into our party, says a TDP leader

VISAKHAPATNAM, ANDHRA PRADESH, 20-01-2013: TDP senior leader Dadi Veerabhadra Rao briefing reporters on his talks with polit bureau member Ch.Ayyanna Patrudu on the latter's resignation in Visakhapatnam on January 20, 2013. He is flanked by Visakha East MLA V.R.K. Babu and urban district President Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar and senior leader Bharanikana Rama Rao. Photo:CV.Subrahmanyam

Even as the dust raised over the entry into the Telugu Desam Party of former minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao and others is yet to settle down, the issue of ticket for elections has occupied centre-stage.

TDP leaders have made it clear right from the beginning that not all the four legislators and the former minister can be accommodated at the cost of cadre that have stayed with the party through tough times.

Their entry has already taken its toll with party leaders from Gajuwaka Gudivada Nagamani and her son and former corporator Amarnath, who had been with the TDP since 2004, parting ways and joining the YSR Congress Party.

“It is important that the leaders joining our party bring the cadre with them,” said a key party leader citing another reason for not all of them being accommodated.

Though party leaders are presently preoccupied with MPTC and ZPTC elections, at least two of the five that joined the TDP at Praja Garjana of party president and former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s are sure to get the party nod, say TDP sources.

In spite of the assertions of Mr. Srinivasa Rao that he was ready to work for the party, he was said to be keen on contesting for the Assembly and eyeing the Gajuwaka constituency.

Pendurti MLA Panchakarla Rameshbabu, who also joined TDP on the Garjana day, is in the reckoning for the Visakhapatnam North constituency. He was said to have nurtured the constituency and also contributed to the success of Garjana by mobilizing the crowd. The move angered Bharanikana Rama Rao, an aspirant now. His wife had lost the 2009 election from the constituency. In a bid to mollify the Yadava cadre, Palla Srinivasa Rao may be fielded from Gajuwaka, it was learnt. If that happens the former minister may have to go to Anakapalle.

In 2009, he had won from Anakapalle on Praja Rajyam ticket defeating Dadi Veerabhadra Rao and Konathala Ramakrishna.

At Bheemunipatnam keeping in view opposition to his nomination, MLA “Avanthi” Srinivasa Rao called on the former MLA R S D P Appala Narasimha Raju. But some party leaders are of the view Mr. Srinivasa Rao had to be accommodated from Nellimarla or Cheepurupalle, if not from Bheemunipatnam. He, however, declared that he would contest only from Bheemunipatnam.