Even as YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has almost completed the finalisation of party candidates for the assembly and Lok Sabha seats, his arch rival and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu is not in a hurry to do so.
On Thursday, Naidu declared that he would announce the list of candidates only at the time of assembly elections.
“We shall announce the names of the candidates after discussing with all aspirants and collecting the view of local leaders. It will be done through a democratic process,” he said.
The TDP chief went a step ahead and declared that he would decide on his own seat only at the time of elections.
“We shall not announce the names in advance who will contest from where. There is no exception to any leaders in the party, including me,” he said.
Apparently, Naidu wants to avoid disturbances within the party in the constituencies where there is a heavy competition. Several TDP leaders are worried over the possibility of denial of tickets due to defection of powerful leaders from YSR Congress party.
On Thursday, there was a commotion in Nuzvid constituency when local ticket aspirant Mudraboyina Venkateshwara Rao expressing apprehensions over the possible allotment of party ticket to K Parthasarathy, who defected from the YSRCP into the TDP.
Similarly, there is a disgruntlement among the TDP leaders over the seats to be allotted to Jana Sena Party. Added to this, there is a talk of alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party as well.
Keeping all these factors into consideration, Naidu doesn’t want to announce the list of candidates for the coming elections.