VIJAYAWADA: Former Karnataka Chief Secretary K Ratna Prabha has been announced as the BJP candidate for the April 17 Tirupati Lok Sabha by-election. A native of Andhra Pradesh, the 1981 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer retired from service in March 2018 and later joined the BJP. Ratna Prabha, though a Karnataka cadre officer, worked in the combined Andhra Pradesh in various capacities.
The BJP, which stood at the sixth place in the SC reserved Tirupati Lok Sabha seat in the general elections held in 2019 in terms of vote share, is now fighting the Tirupati by-election in alliance with the Jana Sena Party. While the YSRC announced Dr Gurumoorthi as its candidate recently, the TDP fielded former Union minister Panabaka Lakshmi.
Congratulating Ratna Prabha, BJP AP President Somu Veerraju said that with her long administrative experience, she will be an ideal candidate and urged the people of the constituency to give her a chance to serve them.