Panabaka Lakshmi, the TDP nominee for the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat, filed her nomination papers before Joint Collector Vetri Selvi here on Thursday.
In a massive show of strength, Ms. Lakshmi, the three-time MP from Nellore, accompanied by her husband Krishnaiah, Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana and TDP district president B. Ravichandra, came in a procession after garlanding the statue of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar at the VRC Centre here and filed three sets of papers.
The former Congress leader later told the media that she joined the TDP to strengthen the hands of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who brought together 23 opposition parties, including the Congress, at the national level to end the “autocratic rule” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
ADVERTISEMENT
Special status
The aim was to ensure Special Category Status to the State and implementation of the assurances made at the time of bifurcation, Ms. Lakshmi said, and added that this would be possible only when a non-BJP government of the Grand Alliance came to power at the Centre.
If elected, Ms. Lakshmi said she would strive for setting up of the Dugarajapatnam port, creation of separate railway division with Tirupati as headquarters, early implementation of the NTPC-BHEL Power Projects Limited (NBPPL) at Mannavaram, and upgrading tourism infrastructure at Pulicat Lake.
ADVERTISEMENT
Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency has four Assembly segments – Sarvepalli, Gudur, Sulurpeta, and Venkatagiri in Nellore district and Srikalahasti, Satyavedu and Tirupati in Chittoor district.