SRIKAKULAM: As part of its ‘Mission 175’, the ruling YSRC has laid emphasis on Tekkali Assembly segment, along with Kuppam of Telugu Desam supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, as it is represented by TDP State president Kinjarapu Atchannaidu.
However, dissidence came to the fore in the ruling party soon after the YSRC leadership’s announcement that MLC Duvvada Srinivas would be the party candidate from Tekkali in the next Assembly elections. The YSRC rank and file in Tekkali came up with the slogan of ‘Fight for 174’ to counter ‘Why not 175’ of the party leadership, expressing their strong opposition to the candidature of Duvvada. This forced the YSRC leadership to ‘appoint’ Duvvada Vani, wife of Srinivas, as the party coordinator of Tekkali constituency to silence the dissidents in the party.
Tekkali is one of the TDP bastions since the inception of the party in 1983. The TDP has won the seat eight times so far. In the 1994 elections, TDP founder and former Chief Minister NT Rama Rao won from Tekkali. The Congress has bagged the Assembly seat in 2004, 2009 and 2009 bypoll. Atchannaidu was elected from Tekkali for the second consecutive time in 2019, withstanding the Jagan wave. Now, Atchannaidu is keen on winning the seat for the third consecutive time in the next elections.
As part of ‘Mission 175’, Jagan announced the candidature of Duvvada for Tekkali during his visit to Srikakulam district. However, Duvvada suffered defeat from Tekkali in the 2014 Assembly elections and from Srikakulam Lok Sabha segment in the 2019 polls. Several ruling YSRC leaders, including former Union minister Killi Kruparani and Kalinga Corporation chairman Perada Tilak faced dissent on the selection of Duvvada for the Assembly seat.
The dissidents strongly believe that Duvvada will loss the election again if he is fielded from Tekkali. To silence his critics, Duvvada at a recent press conference announced that Jagan had ‘appointed’ his wife Vani as the coordinator for Tekkali constituency and she would contest from the seat in the next elections. However, there is no official confirmation from the district YSRC leaders on Vani’s appointment as Tekkali coordinator.
Speaking to TNIE, YSRC district president Dharmana Krishna Das said, “There are many aspirants for the party ticket in every constituency. Jagan will choose the right candidate from all the aspirants to accomplish Mission 175.’’
Krishna Das further admitted that the party had received several complaints against Duvvada. It was alleged that he was not accessible to the party cadre after becoming MLC. Hence, the party high command reportedly directed Duvvada to make Vani participate in the Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam.
“We, however, do not have any official information on Vani’s appointment as Tekkali constituency coordinator. Now, she has been undertaking door-to-door campaign in the constituency, highlighting the welfare schemes of the YSRC government and she is getting a good response from the cadre,’’ Krishna Das said.However, a political analyst is of the view that the TDP is not a strong force in Tekkali now, but the disunity among YSRC leaders may help Atchannaidu perform a hat-trick.