Uncertainty over selection of candidates for a few constituencies ended with TDP national president and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu placating Forest Minister Sidda Raghava Rao who was reluctant to give up Darsi from where he won in 2014, and contest from the Ongole Lok Sabha constituency.
After a large number of party workers from Darsi staged a demonstration in Amaravati, the Chief Minister as a via media offered the Darsi Assembly seat to a member of the Sidda family in return for Mr. Raghava Rao agreeing to contest from Ongole in the wake of Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, whose name was finalised earlier, crossing over to the YSRCP at the 11th hour, TDP sources said. Mr. Raghava Rao insisted that the ticket for the Darsi seat be given either to his wife Lakshmi Padmavati or his son Sudheer as he had been nursing it for the last five years and the latter’s name was finalised, the sources said.
Former Congress MLA from Kanigiri, Ugra Narasimha Reddy, who had recently joined the TDP, had refused to contest from Darsi after ruling party’s Hindupur MLA Nandamuri Balakrishna insisted on renominating sitting Kanigiri MLA Kadiri Babu Rao.
This came as an advantage for the Sidda family as the party as a principle was against giving the ticket to two persons from the same family. Determined to wrest the Chirala Assembly seat from sitting MLA Amanchi Krishnamohan, who quit the TDP to join the YSRCP, the party asked TDP MLC Karnam Balarama Krishnamurthy to contest from the handloom town.
David Raju disappointed
Mr. Naidu preferred defeated TDP candidate in 2014 Ajitha Rao for Yerragondapalem disappointing sitting MLA P. David Raju who crossed over to the TDP after getting elected on the YSRCP ticket.
The TDP chief also cleared the names of sitting MLAs D. Janardhana Rao (Ongole), Y. Sambasiva Rao (Parchur), Gottipatti Ravikumar(Addanki), Pothula Rama Rao (Kandukur), Dola Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy (Kondepi) and M. Ashok Reddy(Giddalur) and party in-charges B.N. Vijaykumar (S.N. Padu), K. Narayana Reddy (Markapur).