Tirupati LS bypolls: TDP To Support BJP Candidate?

With Tirupati YCP MP Balli Durga Prasada Rao succumbing to Covid-19, all the political parties are busy planning their strategies and trying to finalise suitable candidates for the upcoming bypolls.

The TDP which is facing its worst-ever crisis in the state is trying to adapt a strategy that would benefit the party.

In 2019, when the TDP contested the elections independently, it gave the ticket to former Union minister Panabaka Lakshmi. However, she was defeated.

Political pundits say that though the TDP has hold on the Triupati Assembly constituency, it does not have that much of ground on the Tirupati Parliamentary constituency, which includes 7 Assembly segments. Moreover, the TDP does not have any suitable candidate to field in the polls. It is for the same reason that the TDP had always allocated the Tirupati LS constituency to the alliance party and washed off its hands.

However, for the bypolls, two candidates seem to be in the race for the ticket – Panabaka Lakshmi and TDP senior leader Varla Ramaiah.

However, the TDP chief is thinking of a different plan. The BJP would field its candidate as the party has better hold on the constituency than the TDP. In the past, BJP candidates had won from the constituency.

In such a case, Naidu is planning to support the BJP candidate as it will help him get closer to the BJP and at the same time, might prove beneficial to the party too.