Is Chandrababu making the same mistake that he has made in Tirupati Lok Sabha bypolls? Is he playing his cards early? Even as YS Jagan Mohan Reddy is keeping his moves a secret and is keeping cards close to his chest, Chandrababu Naidu has revealed his plans for the Badvel bypolls?
In Tirupati too, he announced the name of Panabaka Lakshmi too early for the YSRCP to plan its strategy in advance. The name of Panabaka was announced even without consulting the other contenders. This made some key leaders to stay lukewarm towards Panabaka. The YSRCP has surprised the political circles by choosing Dr Gurumurthy as its candidate. This has come as a shock to many as most people were expecting that Jagan would field someone from the family of Balli Durgaprasada Rao, whose death necessitated the bypoll.
In Badvel too, Chandrababu has announced the candidature of Obulapuram Rajasekhar, who was defeated by Dr Venkatasubbaiah. There is going to be a bypoll due to Venkatasubbaiah’s demise. Chandrababu has announced the candidature of Rajasekhar even before the notification was issued. In the 2019 elections, Venkatasubbaiah had defeated Rajasekhar by over 40000 votes. Chandrababu has made this announcement after consulting another strong contender Vijayalakshmi, who was hell-bent on fighting the bypoll. It is not known what her reaction would be.
On the other hand, YS Jagan has not yet announced his candidate. While Venkatasubbaiah’s wife Dr Sudha has already launched her campaign, Jagan might spring a surprise by bringing some other candidates. He did the same thing in Tirupati and had won handsomely. He is likely to announce his candidate now that the notification has been issued.
