Till Thursday evening, the talk in the YSR Congress party was that party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has finalized the candidature of Balli Kalyan Chakravathi for the ensuing by-election to Tirupati parliamentary seat.
Chakravarthi is son of former MP late Balli Durgaprasada Rao, whose death necessitated the by-elections to the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat.
However, on Friday, the name of another candidate came up for reckoning as the YSRC candidate for Tirupati.
He is Dr Gurumurthy, personal physiotherapist of the chief minister, who had been with the latter all through his padayatra between November 2017 and January 2019.
Apparently, Jagan has promised a good position for Gurumurthy and suddenly, he decided to field the latter in the by-elections.
Party sources said Jagan has finalized the candidature of Gurumurthy and party leaders have been tweeting his name since morning. In all probability, his name will be announced officially on Friday evening or tomorrow.
In the morning, Dugaprasada Rao’s wife and son met Jagan in Tadepalli and the party president reportedly assured them that he would do all justice to the family.
Surprisingly, instead of Jagan, state minister for municipal administration Botsa Satyanarayana announced that Kalyan Chakravarthi would be made an MLC at the earliest whenever the first vacancy arises in the legislative council.
“Jagan wishes that Chakravarthy has a long way to go in politics,” Botsa said.
Chakravarthy, too, said Jagan had assured an MLC seat to him and thanked the latter for the same.
“I am grateful to Jagan who has supported our family during tough times. When my father was hospitalized due to Covid-19, the party stood by the family,” he said, and assured to work for the victory of the YSRC in Tirupati by-elections.