VIJAYAWADA: With the Election Commission of India sounding the poll bugle for the Tirupati Lok Sabha by-election, the BJP state unit is in the process of shortlisting its candidate, who is likely to be from Madiga community, according to party sources. While a preliminary list has been prepared by the state unit, the party’s central election committee (CEC) will pick the candidate shortly.
Though the saffron party leaders have been camping in Tirupati for the past few months and have held a series of consultations with ‘over a dozen potential candidates’, they haven’t zeroed in on the contestant yet. While names of several people including former bureaucrats Dasari Srinivasulu, Ratna Prabha and others were reportedly under consideration, a senior party leader said, “We are looking for a representation from the Madiga community to field as our Tirupati candidate, while other parties are looking to have their candidates from Mala community. A preliminary list has been finalised and the CEC will pick the name.”
The ECI, on Tuesday, announced that bypoll will be held on April 17 and the last date to file the nominations is March 30. “We are looking for someone from the Madiga community considering the fact that our candidate, who won the parliamentary election in 1999 in Tirupati, belonged to the same caste,” the leader noted.
The national party managed to get a dismal vote share of 1.22 per cent in the 2019 election, lesser than NOTA (1.96 per cent), Congress (1.83 per cent), BSP (1.6 per cent). This time, the party aims to ‘become an alternative to YSRC and TDP’, and is working to cover all its bases to further its aspirations. In line with this, the party, during its campaign, will say ‘if BJP is elected, the MP would be given a union cabinet berth’. Besides, the BJP-Jana Sena alliance is also eyeing votes of the ‘Balija’ community to forge a larger electoral consolidation. The BJP has been alleging that Hinduism is under attack in the State.