The BJP, which is in high spirits to win the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat in the April 17 by election is yet to decide on its candidate.
The party had grabbed the opportunity from the ally-Jana Sena, and is all set to give a tough fight, as its leaders believe.
However, the leadership is taking time to decide on the candidature even as the rivals have cleared the candidates from their party.
The ruling YSR Congress had cleared the name of a local physiotherapist Dr M Guru Murthy, while the opposition TDP had announced the candidature of former Union minister Panabaka Lakshmi.
The BJP has three applications and interestingly all the three are former bureaucrats.
The top in the list is retired IAS officer Dasari Sreenivasulu, followed by Karnataka’s retired IAS officer Rathna Prabha and former bureaucrat and former minister Ravela Kishore Babu.
All the three candidates have been lobbying from their end, making it difficult for the top leadership to back any of them due to local equations.
Sources in the BJP top leadership say that Delhi is in favour of Rathna Prabha, while the AP leaders are in favour of Sreenivasulu.
Though the constituency is reserved for the SCs, the fight is likely to be tough with the heads of the political parties eyeing on it and going all out to win.