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| ys jagan election campaign in pulivendula |
Jagan kicks off poll campaign
April 4: Even as the Congress and the Telugu Desam (TD) are yet to finalise their candidates, the YSR Congress founder Mr Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy launched his poll campaign for the ensuing Kadapa Lok Sabha seat bypoll with an attack on Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi. He managed to create a flutter among the Congress circles by terming the upcoming bypoll as a fight between Mrs Sonia Gandhi and former chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy.
Mr Jagan is reportedly trying to strike a chord with local people for bypolls by invoking pride and self-respect of Kadapa residents. Mr Jagan targeted mainstream political parties — the Congress and the TD — accusing both of them colluding to defeat him in the byelection. He called upon the voters to cast their votes in his favour and his mother Y.S. Vijayamma, who is contesting from Pulivendula Assembly constituency, in order to “teach a lesson” to Mrs Sonia Gandhi by defeating the Congress candidate.
Mr Jagan is camping in Kadapa and is holding secret parleys with his followers as well as relatives. While Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, who recently quit the state Cabinet, is all set to kick off his hectic electioneering in Pulivendula constituency, TD Rajya Sabha member M.V. Mysoora Reddy swung into action to prepare the TD functionaries for bypolls in the district. Mr Vivekananda Reddy reportedly refused to contest from Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency and decided to contest against his sister-in-law Ms Vijaya-mma though the Congress has not declare his candidature for bypoll so far.
Some Congress leaders opined that Mr Vivekananda Reddy’s son-in-law N. Raj-asekhar Reddy or senior le-ader N. Vardarajulu Reddy have chances of contesting against Mr Jagan in Kadapa Parliamentary bypoll. Sources in TD said that Mr Mysoora Reddy had proposed Kandula Rajamohan Reddy’s candidature against Mr Jagan in case the TD high command is not willing to field him.
However, the Jagan group is leaving no stone unturned for the bypoll by launching the campaign in full throttle targeting both the ruling and the Opposition parties and their alleged “alliance”.
Parties yet to decide on Kadapa candidate
Both the Congress and the Telugu Desam are still undecided about whom to field for the Kadapa by-polls to take on Mr Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. The Congress’ Kadapa in-charge minister, Mr Kanna Laxminarayana, convened a meeting of select leaders from the Kadapa Lok Sabha segment on Wednesday to discuss the issue of the party’s candidate. At present, there’s only one name, the former Proddutur MLA, Mr N. Varadarajulu Reddy, for the Kadapa Congress seat. Mr Reddy had lost in the recent Kadapa MLC polls to Mr Jagan’s candidate, Mr B. Narayana Reddy.
Some Congress leaders even tried in vain to rope in TD Rajya Sabha member, Dr M.V. Mysoora Reddy, to fight the elections as a Congress candidate. Mr Mysoora Reddy, however, rejected the offer stating that he could not change parties considering his age and image. Congress leaders are thus now trying to bring pressure on another TD leader, Mr Kandula Rajamohan Reddy, who had earlier contested unsuccessfully against the late YSR. So far, the Congress has finalised agriculture minister Mr Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy’s candidature from Pulivendula Assembly to take on Ms Y.S. Vijayalakshmi, YSR’s wife.
The TD too has not finalised any candidate either for Kadapa or Pulivendula. The party chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, who is currently on a private trip to Singapore, is expected to return on April 5 and hold a meeting with Kadapa party leaders to discuss the candidates’ issue. Though the TD vice-president, Mr C.M. Ramesh, and former MLC Mr Putta Narasimha Reddy have agreed to be the candidates if given an opportunity, it is reported that Mr Naidu is trying to field the Rajya Sabha member, Mr Mysoora Reddy, or Mr Kandula Rajamohan Reddy from Kadapa.
When Mr Naidu contacted Mr Rajamohan Reddy a few days back, he promised to come to the state capital and discuss the issue. Mr Mysoora Reddy meanwhile openly declared that though he was not interested to contest the bypolls, he might consider if forced to do so. For Kadapa, two combinations are possible as of now: Mr Jagan (YSR Congress), Mr Varadarajulu Reddy (Congress), Mr Rajamohan Reddy (TD) or Mr Jagan (YSR Congress), Mr Rajamohan Reddy (Congress) and Mr M. V. Mysoora Reddy (TDP).
source:http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/regions/anantapur/jagan-kicks-poll-campaign-905
