Naidu maintains political dignity, withdraws from by-election

In a surprising move, National Democratic Alliance led by TDP, BJP and Janasena in Andhra Pradesh under Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu decided not to contest in the upcoming MLC by-election that will be held on August 30th.

Consequent on the disqualification of YSR Congress Party MLC Vamshi Srinivas Yadav upon his defection to Janasena, the MLC post under local bodies quota in united Visakhapatnam fell vacant and the Election Commission announced the by-election through a notification in the first week of this month. 

Immediately, YSRCP supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy announced seasoned Uttarandhra politician Botsa Satyanarayana as the party’s candidate for this by-election. Botsa filed his nomination on Monday. 

After dilly-dallying for nearly two weeks,TDP president Chandrababu Naidu after making several consultations with seniors leaders of Uttarandhra finally decided to back out from this by-election as a matter of maintaining political dignity and decorum because the YSRCP has got adequate majority among the local body ZPTCs, MPTCs and Corporators of GVMC who are going to exercise their vote in these elections. 

Till yesterday, there were reports that the NDA was planning to field a strong leader to frustrate the YSRCP’s ambition in retaining the MLC seat. Several names cropped up in the media regarding the contestant on behalf of NDA.

 However, the TDP chief decided not to attempt to encourage any cross-voting through various means of inducements and grab the MLC seat in the present circumstances and announced to his party leaders about his decision. With this, it will be a mere formality for YSRCP to retain the MLC seat.