The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has changed its candidates for five Assembly seats for the next month’s elections in Andhra Pradesh.
Former YSR Congress Party MP from Narsapuram, K. Raghu Rama Krishna Raju has been named as the candidate from Undi Assembly segment in West Godavari district, replacing sitting MLA Manthena Rama Raju.
Undi is one of the Assembly segments under Narsapuram Lok Sabha constituency, from where Krishna Raju was elected in 2019 on a YSRCP ticket but raised the banner of revolt in 2020 by openly criticising party supremo and Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy.
TDP President N. Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday handed over the B-form to Krishna Raju. Denied a ticket by the BJP to contest again from the same constituency, he joined the TDP on April 5.
Krishna Raju, who resigned from the YSRCP in February this year, was aspiring for a BJP ticket as Narsapuram was one of the six Lok Sabha seats allotted to the party under the seat-sharing agreement among the TDP, the Jana Sena, and the BJP.
However, the BJP chose to field Srinivasa Varma.
The TDP has also changed its candidate in the Paderu constituency in the Alluri Sitharama Raju district.
After confirming the ticket to former government teacher K. Venkata Ramesh Naidu, the TDP leadership has re-allotted the ticket to former MLA and TDP in-charge of Paderu, Giddi Eswari.
Ever since Ramesh Naidu was announced as the TDP candidate, Eswari’s supporters have been staging protest rallies and dharnas demanding that the party high command reconsider its decision. Anguished over the party leadership decision, she announced her decision to contest as an independent candidate. Eswari had won the Paderu seat in the 2014 elections on a YSRCP ticket but joined the TDP in 2017. In 2019, she contested as a TDP candidate but lost to YSRCP’s K. Bhagya Lakshmi.
In another significant change, the TDP re-allotted the Madugula Assembly ticket to former minister Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy. The party had earlier announced Pyla Prasad Rao as the candidate from this constituency in the Anakapalli district. Satynarayana Murthy was keen on contesting from the Pendurthi seat but the TDP allotted the seat to its ally Jana Sena under the seat-sharing deal.
Since then, he has kept himself away from party programmes.
In the Madakasira (SC) constituency in Sri Satya Sai district, the TDP changed its candidate Anil Kumar. Following pressure from a group within the party, Naidu replaced him with M. S. Raju, head of TDP’s Dalit wing in Anantapur district.
The party has also changed its candidate for the Venkatagiri constituency in the Tirupati district. The party leadership had earlier named former MLA K. Ramakrishna’s daughter Lakshmi Priya as its candidate. The ticket has now been allotted to Ramakrishna.