TD, BJP lock horns over Vizag, YSRC to field either Sharmila or Subba Reddy, No takers for Congress

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, March 28, 2014:  Vizag loksabha has become a hot seat for all the political parties. Almost all the party chiefs are holding cards to their chest. No party is ready to announce its candidate and keeping each other party guessing.

Both TD and BJP want the seat. BJP wants the seat for its newly appointed Andhra Pradesh unit chief, Kambhampati Haribabu and TD wants it for, Ganta Srinivas Rao who rejoined the party recently.

It is learnt that Ganta Srinivasa Rao rejoined TD quitting Congress only after he was
assured Vizag loksabha seat. It would be interesting to see which party would bag the
seat if the TD-BJP alliance is finalized.

It is reliably learnt that the marathon meetings between BJP national leader Prakash
Javdekar and TD leaders since a few days, on seat sharing, has hit a road block,  with
both the parties not willing to spare Vizag and Vijayawada seats.

While the TD was willing to give away Tirupathy, Narasapuram and Rajampet seats to BJP, Chandrababu Naidu is not so keen to give away Vizag and Vijayawada seats to the saffron party.

And YSRC chief Jagan is still undecided whether to field his sister Sharmila or uncle, YV Subba Reddy. YSRC has almost finalized all assembly seats in Vizag and 4 loksabha seats in north Andhra Pradesh, but, Jagan, kept his options open for Vizag and waiting for TD to announce its candidate.

Interestingly there are no prominent faces in Congress to contest for Vizag loksabha
seat. Though, rajyasabha member T Subbarami Reddy earlier sought the party leadership to give him a chance to contest from Vizag, in the last minute arrangement in a surprise
move, Reddy was nominated to the upper house of the parliament for the third time.

Reddy’s nomination to Rajyasabha, has actually cleared way for former union minister, D Purandheswari to contest fom Vizag. But she decided to quit the Congress and joined
another national party BJP.

 Meanwhile, Purandheswari’s open desire to contest from Vizag on a BJP ticket, if the
party central leadership agrees was expected to open a turf war in Vizag as Haribabu has
been nurturing the constituency since long. However, she was reportedly asked by the
party leadership to stay away from Vizag seat. She is now banking on Vijayawada loksabha seat.