With just over a fortnight left for the simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the State Assembly, former Union Minister Y.S.Chowdary brought about an understanding between TDP party nominee for S.N.Padu Assembly seat B.N.Vijaykumar and the dissidents in his constituency on Saturday.
Trouble-shooting
The former Union Minister of State, deputed by Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu to stem the rot, asked Zilla Parishad Chairperson and former Ongole MLA Edara Haribabu to act as campaign coordinator for Mr.Vijaykumar who had narrowly lost to YSRCP nominee A.Suresh in 2014 in S.N.Padu, which had been a TDP bastion in the past.
Tough fight
Mr.Vijaykumar is locked in a fierce contest with YSRCP nominee T.J.R.Sudhakar in the constituency reserved for the Scheduled Castes now.
Mr.Chowdary, at a meeting here, impressed upon second-rung party leaders from Chimakurthy, S.N.Padu, N.G.Padu and Maddipadu mandals to sink their differences and work unitedly to win the seat which would also have a bearing on the party’s poll prospects in the Bapatla Lok Sabha constituency represented by Mr.Sriram Malyadri.
Nomination opposed
The dissidents had raised a banner of revolt and asked the party chief not to give the party ticket to Mr.Vijaykumar, who had crossed over to the TDP from the Congress just before 2014 elections, for allegedly not taking party leaders and workers along with him since then.