All is not well in YSRCP on Razole front

Rajamahendravaram: There are protests in YSRCP over the allotment of Razole seat to ex-minister Gollapalli Surya Rao, who joined the party from TDP just a few days ago. Rapaka Varaprasada Rao, who won the 2019 election from Razole on the Jana Sena ticket and later joined YSRCP was confident of ticket in the 2024 elections. But Gollapalli Surya Rao changed party and joined YSRCP unexpectedly. The party promptly allotted him the ticket dashing hopes of Varaprasada Rao.

This has caused serious dissatisfaction among party cadre in the constituency. Varaprasada Rao's followers point out that YSRCP lost two consecutive elections in the Razole constituency, in 2014 and 2019 elections. They say that YSRCP is not in a position to win the current elections also. They want Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to conduct a survey and give ticket to those who could win.

There are also reports that some sympathisers of Varaprasada Rao are leaving the party in protest over candidature of former minister Surya Rao.

Varaprasada Rao told the media that he requested Jagan Mohan Reddy to allot Razole's ticket to him. He declared that he is ready to contest from either Razole Assembly or the Amalapuram Lok Sabha if Jagan asked him to do so. But he said he did not have the capacity to fight the party leadership for the ticket and said he would work for the success of the party even if he was not given the ticket.

Meanwhile, Jana Sena will contest in Razole Assembly seat as part of the TDP-JSP alliance. The alliance has not yet finalised the candidate.