VIJAYAWADA: With only two days left for campaign to end in Badvel, the parties and the candidates have intensified their campaigning.
The ruling YSRC is focusing on pulling greater number of voters to the polling booths and increasing its majority to 1 lakh votes.
In the 2019 general elections, the voter turnout was 1.50 lakh, out of which YSRC candidate G Venkata Subbaiah polled 95,482 votes to secure a majority of 44,734 votes. As his death caused the by-election, the YSRC wants to retain the seat with a greater majority, and is targeting 1 lakh votes.
The ruling party has deployed its ministers and senior leaders to campaign, and leaders are asking voters to turn up in large numbers at the polling booths on October 30. The leaders are apprising the voters about the number of welfare schemes the government rolled out in the last two-and-a-half years.
On its part, the BJP is working hard to make its presence felt in the constituency. While the party’s AP unit president Somu Veerraju has been camping in the constituency from day one, several top leaders have visited and campaigned for the party’s candidate. Former minister C Adinarayana Reddy, who joined the BJP after the 2019 general elections, is playing a key role in the campaign.
BJP general secretary and Andhra Pradesh in-charge Sunil Deodhar has issued a warning to those who joined the party in recent months. Deodhar said BJP is not a parking place for leaders to come and relax, and has asked them to work to help the party expand its base. While Adinarayana Reddy is making an all-out effort to woo voters, his brother Narayana Reddy and son Bhupesh Reddy, who are in the TDP, are not active in the campaign.
The Congress, which is fielding former MLA PM Kamalamma, is pinning its hopes on the support from the TDP. As the TDP is not in the race, the BJP on one side and the Congress on the other are working hard to woo voters.
Meanwhile, BJP functionaries led by Veerraju met central election observer Bheeshma Kumar in Kadapa on Monday and submitted a representation seeking paramilitary forces on polling day.
