Former assembly speaker Dr Kodela Sivaprasada Rao’s son and Telugu Desam Party leader Kodela Sivaram is mounting intense pressure on the party high command for giving him the party ticket from Sattenapalli assembly constituency in Palnadu district in the coming assembly elections.
While TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu appointed former minister Kanna Lakshminarayana as the party in-charge of Sattenapalli constituency there by indirectly confirming his ticket for the coming elections, Sivaram who had been nurturing the constituency for the last four years is firm on contesting the elections from the same constituency.
On Thursday, Sivaram took up “Intintikee Mee Kodela” (Your Kodela at every doorstep) programme in Sattenapalli constituency and touched every house, requesting the people to vote for him in the coming elections.
“As long as the TDP is there in the constituency, Kodela’s name cannot be removed. All through his life, Kodela had struggled for the development of the constituency. I shall carry forward his legacy,” he said.
Sivaram said the people of Sattenapalli had immense love and affection towards Kodela family and it was indebted to every TDP worker. It was evident from the way the people were welcoming him in the villages, he said.
Earlier this month, Sivaram met TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh in Sattenapalli during the latter’s Yuva Galam padayatra. He walked along with Lokesh and also Kanna Lakshminarayana.
Sivaram reportedly told Lokesh that he would contest the elections from Sattenapalli, come what may, irrespective of whether he gets the party ticket or not. Lokesh had only suggested Sivaram to work for the party’s victory without making any promise about his political future.
Sivaram expressed displeasure over the way he was being set aside in the party after his father’s death. He has been undertaking padayatra in the constituency and made visits to the party loyalists’ residences.
Holding the placards and banners with Dr Kodela Sivaprasada Rao’s images, Sivaram aggressively moved into the public even before the constituency in-charge Kanna Lakshminarayana launched his work.