TD has not yet selected candidates due to internal discord
Vijayawada: Telugu Desam is facing internal strife and has been forced to change candidates in some constituencies even as filing of election nominations begins in the state.
Telugu Desam, Jana Sena and BJP, which formed the electoral alliance, had shared a total of 175 assembly and 25 Lok Sabha seats in the order of 144-17, 21-2 and 10-6 respectively. This happened after several discussions between top BJP leaders and other leaders including Amit Shah and J.P. Nadda. However, this meant that TD hopefuls had to sacrifice their interests in some constituencies.
Although the TD officially announced its candidate Payala Prasad in Madugula in Anakapalle Lok Sabha constituency, there is a proposal to replace him with Bandaru Satyanarayana.
TD chief Naidu, during his recent visit to north Andhra districts, lashed out at Bandaru for seeking the seat and even threatened to switch allegiance to some other party. There is also a proposal to include TD’s Nallamilli Ramakrishna Reddy by replacing BJP candidate M. Shiva Krishnam Raju in Anaparthy assembly constituency.
For Denduluru assembly constituency, the official TD candidate Chintamaneni Prabhakar is proposed to be replaced by BJP candidate Garapathy Sitaramanjaneya Choudhury. It appears that no adjustment of seats has been made, except to force the official candidate to forfeit his allotted seat.
Similarly, Undi assembly constituency is also facing trouble as there are two more contestants apart from the current official TD candidate and sitting MLA Manthena Rama Raju.
Vettukuri Venkata Siva Rama Raju won from this constituency twice in 2009 and 2014. Raju intends to contest the upcoming elections as an independent candidate.
K. from TD by removing the existing candidate. There is a proposal to accommodate Raghu Ram Krishna Raju in Undi assembly constituency, as Raju had recently joined TD in the presence of party chief Naidu.
Political analysts say the TD chief has a habit of making last-minute changes in candidates, right up to the last date of filing nominations. Some of those who have been accommodated are still not active on the campaign front, fearing that Naidu may change his mind at any time.
