TDP shifts Anatapur candidates to Bengaluru to stop ‘YSRC unanimous poll plans’

ANANTAPUR: ‘Resort politics’ is often seen after the results of an election are declared. But in Anantapur, the Opposition TDP reportedly had to shift their candidates in the Kalyandurg municipality to Bengaluru and other places fearing that the ruling YSRC will induce them and make them withdraw from the contest at the last minute. 

With the party candidates switching loyalties at the last minute in several municipalities and corporations where elections are being held, leaving the party in the lurch, the TDP leaders of Kalyandurg reportedly shifted their candidates to Bengaluru and Tamil Nadu. TDP Kalyandurg constituency in-charge Umamaheswara Naidu called the party candidates for an “important meeting” and shifted them to Bengaluru, sources said. 

In the elections to gram panchayats in the Kalyandurg Assembly constituency, the TDP suffered a severe blow after party-backed candidates withdrew their nominations at the last minute, leading to unanimous election of many YSRC-backed candidates. 

It is learnt that a couple of TDP candidates in Dharmavaram municipality too have gone incommunicado.
TDP leaders claimed that party candidates are being pressured to withdraw from the fray. The TDP is now focussing on keeping its flock together.

District TDP president BK Pardasaradhi said some candidates went underground unable to bear the pressure exerted by the ruling party in the name of unanimous election. “In Rayadurg, the YSRC leaders have burnt down the timber depot belonging to a candidate and the same situation is prevailing in Tadipatri and Dharmavaram,’’ he said, adding a couple of their party candidates have gone underground. Pardasaradhi said the YSRC had resorted to similar tactics even during the gram panchayat elections.