The YSR Congress Party will announce the names of candidates for all municipal corporations in the State from Vijayawada and for the remaining smaller municipalities, where there is no dispute or competition among the party leaders for candidature, the local MLAs have been asked to announce the names, Municipal Administration Minister Botcha Satyanarayana said.
After day-long deliberations at Anantapur and Puttaparthi with party MLAs, MPs, and key functionaries, Mr. Satyanarayana said that while they were not worried about opposition candidates, they were keen on resolving a stiff competition among party leaders to secure nominations from the wards.
“We did our best to talk to all the persons and reached an agreement in most of the places,” he said.
He said there were some wards in Anantapur Municipal Corporation and a few in some other smaller municipalities, which would be announced by the party from the headquarters in Vijayawada after consultations with Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. March 2 and 3 being the dates for withdrawal, he has advised all party leaders who had filed their nominations to withdraw if they were not the official candidates announced by the party leadership.
For the municipalities in Anantapur Parliamentary constituency — Tadipatri, Rayadurg, Kalyandurg, Gooty, Guntakal, and Anantapur Municipal Corporation — the candidates were finalised and the announcement was awaited. For the municipalities in the Hindupur Parliamentary constituency, the discussions were over in Puttaparthi, and government adviser Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy and Botcha Satyanarayana departed for Vijayawada.
Meanwhile, Anantapur Urban MLA Anantha Venkatarami Reddy and Roads and Buildings Minister Malagundla Sankaranarayana attended the meeting along with MP Talari Rangaiah in Anantapur. Mr. Venkatarami Reddy will begin his campaign in the corporation area from March 4, while former MLA and TDP leader Vaikuntham Prabhakar Chowdhary will begin his campaign from March 5.
