Curtains came down on a high-pitch campaign for the April 17 byelection to the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat on Thursday evening.
SPSR Nellore District Collector and Returning Officer K.V.N. Chakradhar Babu told a media conference here that all arrangements have been completed to ensure a fair and free polling in the 2,470 polling stations set up fully adhering to COVID-19 protocol and by enforcing prohibitory orders under Cr.Pc.144.
Twenty-three companies of Central forces and three of APSP personnel would be pressed into service in the constituency comprising the Assembly segments of Sarvepalli, Gudur, Sulurpeta and Venkatagiri in Nellore district and Satyaveedu, Srikalahasti and Tirupati in Chittoor district, the Collector said along with Superintendent of Police Bhaskar Bhushan.
Though 28 candidates are in the fray, the contest will be mainly among the nominees of the YSR Congress Party, Telugu Desam Party, the Jana Sena Party-backed Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Confident of a five lakh plus margin of victory in the bypoll, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy skipped campaigning in person for the party nominee Dr. M. Gurumoorthy, a political novice, who banked heavily upon the ‘Jagananna’s Navaratnalu’ welfare schemes. The ruling party projected the bypoll as a referendum on the party’s two-year rule, as it had implemented 90% of the poll promises as put by party poll in-charge and Tirumala Tirupati Desasthanams Chairman Y.V. Subba Reddy.
Naidu leads campaign
On the other hand, Telugu Desam Party President N. Chandrababu personally led the campaign for party nominee former Union Minister Panabaka Lakshmi and harped on the injustice meted out to the State post bifurcation by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre and the YSRCP failing to fulfil its poll promise to forcefully secure the Special Category Status for the State.
The BJP and the YSRCP had competed with each other in imposing a heavy dose of taxes and made the lives of people miserable, she highlighted during her campaign.
Another former Union Minister and Congress candidate Dr. Chinta Mohan dug a lone furrow and tried to impress upon the voters by stressing that the Congress party alone could provide an alternative to the BJP at the national level and not the two regional parties – the YSRCP and TDP.
Exposing the ‘dismal performance’ of the YSRCP MPs in Parliament, BJP candidate K. Ratna Prabha, tipped to become a Union Minister if elected, sought a positive vote for development of the State in general and the constituency in particular with liberal Central funds.
Meanwhile, the CPI(M) nominee Nellore Yadagiri impressed upon the voters saying the Marxist party alone could stop the BJP’s onward march in the State from the temple town as the YSRCP and the TDP had supported the ‘sectarian’ agenda of the BJP in Parliament on several occasions.
