A day after formally joining the Telugu Desam Party at the public meeting of party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu at Narasapuram, sitting parliament member Kanumuru Raghu Ramakrishna Raju got the party ticket from Undi assembly constituency.
The TDP president on Saturday announced the candidature of Raju for the Undi assembly seat, in place of sitting MLA Manthena Venkata Rama Raju, who has been originally given the party ticket again.
Before announcing the rebel MP’s name, Naidu mentally prepared Rama Raju to give up the seat and offered him a prominent post once the TDP comes to power. Apparently, Raghu Ramakrishna Raju also had several rounds of talks with Rama Raju.
Soon after the TDP announced the candidature of Raghu Ramakrishna Raju for Undi seat, Rama Raju declared that he would give full support to the MP to contest as an MLA.
The Narasapuram MP, who resigned from the YSR Congress party on February 24, after revolting against party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in the last four and a half years, had been trying for a ticket from any of the three National Democratic Alliance partners – TDP, Jana Sena and the BJP from the same constituency in the upcoming general elections.
As part of seat sharing agreement among the alliance partners, the seat was allocated to the BJP, which fielded its state general secretary Bhupatiraju Srinivasa Varma.
An upset Raju made extensive lobbying with the TDP to get back the seat from the BJP and held several rounds of discussions with Naidu.
Naidu, in turn, offered Eluru Lok Sabha seat to the BJP in exchange for Narasapuram seat, but the BJP leadership did not agree for the same.
“As a result, Raju has no choice but to accept Naidu’s offer to contest the assembly elections from Undi assembly constituency,” sources said.