Chandragiri, a battle of prestige for TDP, YSRCP

Tirupati: Chandragiri, being native constituency of TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, winning is prestigious for the TDP and YSRCP in the forthcoming elections.

In 2014 elections, YSRCP candidate Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy had defeated TDP candidate and former Minister Galla Aruna Kumari with a narrow margin of 4,500 votes. Chevireddy had secured 1,00,924 votes and Galla Aruna 96,406 votes.

According to 2011 census, the total electorate is 3,40,234 in which 74.64 per cent is rural and 25.36 per cent is urban. The Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) ratio is 18.75 and 3.94 per cent respectively from the total population. The constituency has 298 polling stations and voter turnout in 2014 Assembly election was 79.83 per cent and 79.3 per cent for Chittoor Lok Sabha seat. The Congress, the YSRCP and the TDP had secured 2.33 per cent, 48.88 per cent and 46.7 per cent votes respectively in 2014 Assembly election while 1.94 per cent, 47.12 per cent and 48.17 per cent in 2014 Lok Sabha election respectively.

In 2014, Dr N Sivaprasad (TDP) had defeated YSRCP candidate Samanya Kiran and won as Chittoor MP. The Chittoor Lok Sabh seat is a SC reserved constituency. Chandrababu announced Pulivarthy Nani as Chandragiri Assembly candidate for upcoming elections.

Nani is also TDP district president. YSRCP President YS Jaganmohan Reddy has re-nominated Chevireddy as a party nominee. The TDP candidate Nani is confident of his victory because of welfare schemes introduced by Chandrababu government and completion of development works.

Bhaskar Reddy had begun campaign six months ago and conducted surveys in villages to identify the issues and ensured they were resolved. However, remaining political parties including Jana Sena are searching for suitable candidates.