The Telugu Desam Party is banking heavily on the muslim minority voters in the coming election. Its first MLA ticket has been declared for Shabana, an NRI minority woman leader. She will contest from Vijayawada West segment. CM Chandrababu Naidu took this decision based on the request from present MLA Jaleel Khan who stepped aside citing health reasons and requested that his daughter Shabana be given the chance.
Naidu’s gamble on anti-Modi stand has yielded good results. The TDP is seeing more and more minority leaders coming forward to ask for its tickets. Naidu has also decided to allot Guntur 1 segment ticket to muslim minority. If there is no strong local leader, there is a fair chance that comedian Ali may be given this opportunity. Ali has already met and asked Naidu to give him MLC or MLA ticket.
CBN has already begun the process of announcing party candidates in different segments where there is no rivalries among local leaders for the tickets. Shabana has started her campaigning in Vijayawada West along with her father and their followers. The TDP decided to follow KCR’s strategy of allowing candidates to make several rounds of campaigning in their segments to improve their winning chances.