Anantapur: Tough competition among YSRCP leaders for Mayor's post

Anantapur: There is tough competition among YSRCP leaders for the Mayoral position for Anantapur Municipal Corporation (AMC).

The party has several aspirants like Chavva Rajasekhar Reddy, Mahalakshmi Sreenivas, ex MLA, Jayaram Naidu and a few others whose eyes are on the Rs 200 crore annual budget corporation and is viewed as a crown of glory and honour.

YSRCP is taking its capturing the corporation for granted. Some leaders who unsuccessfully tried for nomination as MLA candidates are now throwing their hat on the ring for the most coveted post. One Jayaram Naidu is a new entrant into YSRCP from TDP and he has been reportedly working behind the scenes for a long time.

While he was in TDP, he had floated an organisation called 'Mee Kosam Ma Sevalu' to respond to civic problems of people and he is now facing stiff competition with several aspirants for the top post in the civic body.

Jayaram Naidu's only strength is his affinity with local MLA Anantha Venkatarama Reddy for whose victory he worked during the 2019 Assembly elections. So, Naidu is hopeful of the MLA's support to him.

Ànother strong aspirant for the Mayoral post is Chavva Rajasekhar Reddy who was originally a YSR loyalist and now a strong supporter of Y S Jagan and YSRCP. He is also confident that the party will reward him with the Mayor's post.

Mahalakshmi Sreenivas, an ex-MLA, is pulling all strings in the party for his nomination as the Mayoral candidate as he hailed from the Backward Classes. However, local MLA Anantha Venkatarama Reddy is keeping his fingers crossed and is not revealing his mind on the issue.

Meanwhile, the TDP is plagued with differences among the leaders within the party, and the rivalry between former MLA Prabhakar Choudhury and the JC family has come to the fore once again.

J C Pawan Reddy, Anantapur MP candidate for TDP in 2019 elections is now using his clout in Anantapur city to field candidates loyal to JC family.

He is working to frustrate the schemes of Choudhury to retain his hold on the party in the corporation limits.

Despite TDP's debacle in the Assembly elections, its leaders have not learnt lessons from it. All they are interested is the one upmanship game in the party at the cost of party interests. Although TDP has fair winning chances its chances are being destroyed by wrangling within the party.