TIRUPATI: Leaders of various political parties planned public meetings in the seven Assembly segments in Chittoor and Nellore districts for the April 17 Tirupati Lok sabha by-election.
Leaders of the main parties have started analysing vote share based on reports from ground-level. Leaders from the ruling YSRC, opposition TDP and BJP have asked the secondary cadre to take steps for preventing cross voting in their respective areas.
The YSR Congress is trying to get not less than 3 lakh majority of votes in the bypoll to prove it’s strength once again after its one-sided victory in the local elections. Senior YSRC leaders including YV Subba Reddy, Panchayati Raj Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister K Narayana Swamy and Ministers Anil Kumar Yadav, Mekapati Goutham Reddy, Adimulapu Suresh, Perni Nani have been camping in the Lok Sabha segment, monitoring the party campaign.
YSRC leaders in Sarvepalli, Gudur, Venkatagiri, Sullurpeta and Sathyavedu, Srikalahasti, Tirupati Assembly segments falling under the Lok Sabha constituency have covered interior areas during their campaign and organised many public meetings. In fact, the party had planned a huge public meeting of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on the outskirts of Tirupati. However, the YSRC chief cancelled his tour citing an increase in the number of Covid cases in Chittoor district and Tirupati urban limits.
On the instructions of the party, YSRC candidate Dr M Gurumoorthy continued his campaign at the gross-root level by interacting with farmers, agriculture labours, vendors and other workers in the Lok Sabha segment. Meanwhile, the Opposition TDP is trying a different strategy for attracting the voters. The party, which announced its candidate Panabaka Lakshmi much before the election notification is out, has been working in the Lok Sabha segment for the last three months.
Telugu Desam Party national general secretary Nara Lokesh has been camping in Tirupati, overseeing the election campaign, for the last one week. TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu has covered all seven Assembly segments in the Parliamentary constituency and interacted with local leaders and sought support from people. The TDP supremo organised at least one public meeting in each of the seven Assembly segments falling under Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency. The party has been doing everything possible to win the seat.
Panabaka Lakshmi has been accusing the State government on various local issues. On the other hand, over the last 15 days, the BJP has deputed all it’s Rajya Sabha MPs from the State to campaign in all four Assembly segments of Nellore district and three constituencies in Chittoor district ati Lok Sabha segment.
The party has also roped in national leaders right from party national president JP Nadda to other star campaigners for attracting voters in the Lok sabha segment. The party also organised BJP Samalochana, Chai pe Charcha and other programmes, creating awareness among the voters on the development activities done by the Centre in the temple town.
Party leaders Somu Veerraju, Sunil Deodhar have been camping in Tirupati, monitoring the party’s campaign and guiding the cadre. Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan also campaigned for the BJP candidate, Ratna Prabha, former chief secretary of Karnataka. Eye on votes, BJP leaders have also sought an explanation from the YSRC candidate on his religion.