Adoni & Alur: Aspiring TDP candidates tense as party yet to make announcement

Kurnool: Huge suspense still prevails in Telugu Desam Party (TDP) over the contesting candidates for the two constituencies of Adoni and Alur. The candidates aspiring for tickets to these constituencies are experiencing tense moments.

TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu has announced candidates to 12 constituencies except the two, Adoni and Alur. Meenakshi Naidu, former MLA of Adoni, is expecting that the party chief would announce his name.

Political sources said that the Adoni ticket is likely to allocated to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as part of the electoral alliance of the three parties TDP-JSP-BJP. If the TDP leadership decides to allot the constituency to BJP, then Meenakshi Naidu would lose the opportunity.

Meenakshi Naidu however has intensified lobbying to get the ticket. He has been an active TDP activist for the last 40 years. He was elected as an MLA for thrice 1994, 1999 and 2009.

He is having a strong base and is a competent leader to give tough competition to his opponent. Sources said that Meenakshi Naidu is putting his every effort to convince Chandrababu Naidu and TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh to allot the party ticket for Adoni.

In fact, Adoni has the highest number of Muslim voters. If the ticket is allocated to a BJP candidate, then the question arises that would the party succeed in getting the Muslim votes? It is the voters who would decide the fate of their future leaders, said the sources.

Similar situation is prevailing in Alur constituency. Four candidates, Kotla Sujathamma, Vaikuntam Mallikarjuna, Vaikuntam Jyothi and Veerabhadra Goud are in the race. As Chandrababu Naidu is known to generally follow the principle of one ticket to a family, Kotla Sujathamma would be kept aside as her husband Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy has been given the ticket to contest from Dhone constituency.

When it comes to Vaikuntam family, there is a rivalry between the two members. Under such circumstances, the party chief would never incline towards anyone of them.

Lastly, it is Veerabhadra Goud who is having more chances to be given the ticket. The party is also of the opinion that the ticket should be allotted to a member representing the BC community. If the party goes ahead with the decision, then Veerabhadra Goud is the only candidate who hails from the community.

The suspense is likely to continue for another two to three days, the sources have stated.