An uphill task for Chinta Mohan in Tirupati

No party has announced their candidates, but bifurcation of the State and anti-incumbency factors may work against the sitting Congress MP.

It’s a fluid situation in Tirupati with no party announcing its Lok Sabha candidate officially yet. To top that, the burden of bifurcation is hanging precariously on the Congress head and could add to the anti-incumbency factor of sitting MP Dr. Chinta Mohan.

That the TDP is not scouting for a candidate indicates its preparedness for an alliance with the BJP, while the YSR Congress is holding all the cards close to its chest. The Congress, most probably, will field incumbent MP Dr. Chinta Mohan.

In 2009, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) fielded former cop Varla Ramaiah, who lost to Dr. Mohan by a narrow margin. Mr. Ramaiah was a non-local. Though Mr. Ramaiah has been functioning as the party’s spokesperson at the State level, he could not strike a chord with the constituents. In 1999 and 2004, the TDP had forgone the Tirupati LS seat to its alliance partner BJP.

In a sense, the party does not have a suitable candidate to be pitted against Dr. Mohan ever since. V. Varaprasad, an ex-bureaucrat, who fought in vain in 2009 on behalf of Praja Rajyam Party (PRP), recently joined the YSRC and appears to enter the fray on YSRC ticket.

On his part, BJP leader S. Munisubramanyam, a municipal contractor, launched an enrolment drive chanting the ‘Modi mantra’ in a big way. He is hoping that Modi wave would turn the tide in his favour. In case the TDP-BJP alliance materialises, it will certainly be in favour of the combine.

Such an alliance is nothing new to Tirupati as 1999 saw BJP candidate, late N. Venkataswamy, a retired bureaucrat, winning the lone seat for the party in Rayalaseema. In fact, it was the only time Dr. Mohan lost an election since 1984 in Tirupati, which indicates that the alliance will be a formidable anti-Congress platform.