TIRUPATI: As part of its alliance talks with the TDP-JSP combine for the ensuing elections, the BJP seems to be eyeing Tirupati parliamentary seat, which it won in the 1999 elections.
Interestingly, the TDP seems to be ready to concede Tirupati Lok Sabha seat if the BJP wants it as part of the alliance as the party has not won it since 1985. The YSRC has already announced sitting MP M Gurumoorthy, who won the seat in the byelection in 2020, as the incharge of the constituency.
According to highly placed sources in the BJP, S Muni Subramanyam, the party’s State secretary, is the frontrunner for the ticket if the saffron party gets the seat as part of an alliance as he has strong financial background, besides being a local. Alternatively, Niharika, daughter of former Karnataka Chief Secretary K Ratna Prabha, may also be a contender for the BJP ticket.
From 1952 to 2019, Tirupati parliamentary constituency had gone to polls for 17 times. Tirupati, Gudur, Sarvepalli, Venkatagiri, Sullurpeta, Srikalahasti and Satyavedu Assembly segments come under the purview of the SC reserved Lok Sabha constituency. In the last Assembly elections, the YSRC had won all the seven segments in the Lok Sabha constituency. Of the total seven, Gudur, Sarvepalli, Venkatagiri and Sullurpeta constituencies play a key role in determining the poll fortunes of political parties in the Lok Sabha election, said a political observer.
Now, the BJP has emphasized organising party programmes in the key Assembly segments to reach out to the people by highlighting the welfare programmes and development projects of the Narendra Modi government.
“The people are vexed with the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government. The YSRC regime has been claiming credit for all the growth achieved by the State in the last five years with the Central funds. The BJP is confident of winning Tirupati Lok Sabha seat if it is allotted to the party as part of alliance with the TDP-JSP combine,” asserted a senior BJP leader.