Naidu Faces Protests over Denial of Ticket

Alleging that the Telugu Desam is allotting ticket to the rich to contest elections, the party’s Proddatur MLA and TDP Kadapa district president Mallela Linga Reddy has said he has been denied the ticket by the party as he does not have enough money.

Linga Reddy, along with his family members, met party president Chandrababu Naidu at DV Manor Hotel here on Saturday to urge the latter to review his decision on the allotment of the Proddatur ticket to Nandyala Varadajulu Reddy. But Naidu did not respond positively to his request.

Linga Reddy was the only MLA from Kadapa district to have been elected on TDP ticket in 2009.

He defeated Varadarajulu Reddy of the Congress who was elected Proddatur MLA for five consecutive terms from 1985 to 2004. Interestingly, denying Linga Reddy the ticket, the TDP offered it to Varadarajulu Reddy who joined it only recently. Coming out of the hotel with tears in eyes, Reddy’s wife Lakshmi Prasanna alleged that the party had become a place for rich persons. Scores of followers of Linga Reddy staged a dharna in front the hotel, where Naidu was staying, in protest over denial of ticket to their leader. They shouted slogans denouncing allocation of TDP ticket to Varadarajulu Reddy. They also alleged that party leader CM Ramesh sold the ticket for Rs 25 crore and criticised allotment of the ticket to Varadarajulu Reddy who harassed TDP activists in Kadapa district.

When the angry mob tried to barge into the hotel, police prevented it. Some of the protesters were taken to the Machavaram police station.

TDP Krishna district president Devineni Umameshwara Rao tried to pacify Reddy’s supporters.

Another group of TDP activists led by MVR Chowdary also staged a dharna at the hotel protesting against the allocation of Vijayawada (East) Assembly ticket to Gadde Ramamohan. Naidu waited until the protests subsided before leaving for Repalle in Guntur district to do electioneering.

TDP Chief Promises Masula-Repalle Rail Line

GUNTUR: Telugu Desam president N Chandrababu Naidu has promised to make efforts for laying a railway line between Machilipatnam in Krishna district and Repalle in Guntur district and to upgrade the 30-bedded hospital at Repalle into a 100-bedded hospital.Addressing a meeting at Repalle as part of the poll campaigning on Saturday, he also promised to solve the drinking water problem by drawing water from Krishna river and providing a mineral water bottle for Rs 2.

He said that he would provide a job to one person in each household. “Want to get a job, Babu has to come (to power) (Jabu Kavalante, Babu Ravali),†he said. Speaking on the need for industrial development, he promised that the development of Nizampatnam seaport. In a scathing attack on YSR Congress president YS Jaganmohan Reddy, he said Reddy had not revealed all his assets in the affidavit submitted to the election authorities. “Jagan’s affidavit did not contain details of his Lotus Pond residential building in Hyderabad and the palace he constructed in a 25-acre land in Bangalore. The TDP president alleged that YSRCP had given ticket to the accused in various scams. “YSRCP is a robber’s party,†he said.