NDA yet to announce its candidate
Minister for Mines, Geology and Excise Kollu Ravindra during a meeting with officials at the fishing harbour near Machilipatnam in Krishna district on Sunday
Visakhapatnam: The NDA seems to be in a dilemma whether to contest the MLC bypoll or stay away from it in order to safeguard its honour.
Only a few hours are left for TDP chief and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to take a decision on the contesting candidate as time is running out for filing of nomination.
For the MLC by-election of local bodies, only two days are left for the receipt of nominations. However, not a single nomination has been filed so far.
Nominations will be received only on August 12 and 13.
Though it has been announced that the nominations will be accepted from August 6, so far not a single candidate has filed the nomination papers on behalf of the NDA.
Meanwhile, YSRCP candidate Botcha Satyanarayana announced that he will file his nomination papers on Monday.
Keeping various equations in view, the TDP is considering possibilities of winning and focusing on selecting the right candidate for it.
Recently, a meeting was held by the Chief Minister with MPs, MLAs and leaders of Visakhapatnam and Anakapalli districts to discuss the MLC polls. Later, a six-member committee was formed to study the situation at field-level and chances of winning the MLC bypoll.
The committee consists of Minister Vangalapudi Anitha, MLAs Palla Srinivasa Rao, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy, Jana Sena Party MLA Panchakarla Ramesh Babu and BJP MLA P Vishnu Kumar Raju.
It seems that a decision is likely to be taken based on the mandal-wise strength of the TDP in the erstwhile Visakhapatnam district and the number of representatives who are likely to join the NDA from the YSRCP.
NDA leaders say that if this exercise is completed, it is possible to announce the candidate on Tuesday and file the nomination the same day.
Out of 838 voters, the NDA strength is less than 250, including ex-officio members. In order to win the by-election, the alliance needs more than 200 voters.
Meanwhile, a number of YSRCP MPTCs, ZPTCs, councillors and corporators are willing to join the NDA. The TDP key leaders are working towards collecting their details. If things fall in place in favour of the NDA, the alliance candidate will soon be announced.