TDP-BJP-Jana Sena Alliance Fallout: Andhra BJP’s Veterans Shown Door?

Vijayawada: With the BJP on board, the TDP and Jana Sena Party appear confident of going to Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh. It is too early to say how far this tripartite pre-poll alliance will succeed as the TDP and its coalition partner Jana Sena  are still firefighting the discontent among the party’s rank and file over the seat allocation. 

Amidst all this, the Andhra Pradesh unit of BJP is set to witness an internal rift over the party’s candidatures. According to the saffron party discussions with the TDP and Jana Sena held so far, the BJP’s proposed these names as its candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the state. 

• Anakapalli  - CM Ramesh
• Araku    - Kothapalli Geetha
• Rajahmundry - Purandeswari 
• Eluru   - Sujana Chowdary
• Hindupur - Paripoornananda 
• Rajampet   - Kiran Kumar Reddy 

While Jana Sena’s MP candidates are Pawan Kalyan from Kakinada and Vallabaneni Bala Sowry from Machilipatnam constituency. 

Similarly, BJP has decided to field these candidates for the AP Assembly elections. 

• Visakhapatnam  North - Vishnu Kumar Raju 
• Jammalamadugu  - Adinarayana Reddy 
• Kadiri - Vishnuvardhan Reddy 
• Vijayawada Central - Yamini 
• Chodavaram/Madugula - Madhav 
• Kaikaluru - Kamineni Srinivas

The circulation of above candidate names has shocked the ticket aspirants among the BJP’s leaders. The party sources said that four out of six MP candidates are not core party members as they crossed over from the TDP. 

CM Ramesh and Sujana Chowdary switched their loyalties to the BJP, Purandeswari and Kiran Kumar Reddy were Congress leaders before joining the saffron party while Kothapalli Geetha and Paripoornananda belonged to other parties. 

The above list of MP candidates has disappointed the senior leaders in the state BJP. Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narasimha Rao worked hard for the development of Visakhapatnam while former MLC Somu Veerraju helped the party strengthen at the grass roots. There is a growing discontent among the senior party leaders. As the party turned a blind eye to the senior party leaders, the party members are blaming Purandeswari for it. They alleged that she played a vital role in the tripartite alliance in order to help the TDP succeed in the upcoming elections. 

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