KADAPA/VIJAYAWADA: With Thursday, October 7, 2021, being an auspicious day, candidates belonging to the BJP and the Congress filed their nominations for the October 30 Badvel Assembly by-election. A day ahead of the last day of filing nominations, the BJP national leadership decided to field Panthala Suresh as its candidate for the bypoll. An announcement has been made to this effect by the party’s national general secretary Arun Singh on Thursday.
The 32-year-old, who holds an MBA and also a masters degree in journalism, hails from Pondaluru village in Pengaluru mandal of Kadapa district. He had unsuccessfully contested as BJP’s Railway Kodur candidate in the 2019 assembly elections. He had also served as the national secretary of BJ Yuva Morcha from 2018 to 2019.
It may be recalled that the BJP had asked its ally, Jana Sena, to fight the bypoll, but Pawan Kalyan announced that his party would not contest as a mark of respect to the family of the incumbent legislator, whose demise necessitated the poll. The saffron party’s announcement takes the number of candidates from well-known parties in the poll fray to three. While YSRC has decided to field Venkatasubbaiah’s wife Dasari Sudha, Congress zeroed in on former MLA PM Kamalamma as its candidate.
Meanwhile, Suresh, as well as Kamalamma, filed their nominations on Thursday. They have submitted their nomination papers to the returning officer Ketan Garg. Suresh was accompanied by BJP leader and former MLA T Jayaramulu, who unsuccessfully contested the seat in 2019, and also one of the ticket aspirants in the bypoll.