YSR Congress Party president Jaganmohan Reddy sprang a surprise for the TDP-BJP alliance on Monday by suddenly announcing the name of his mother YS Vijayalakshmi as party’s candidate for Visakhapatnam lok Sabha seat.
The TDP-BJP alliance had became a bit complacent ever since the party had dropped hints that no YSR family member will contest from Visakhapatnam and the TDP had left the prestigious seat for the BJP’s Andhra Pradesh unit chief K Hari Babu. However, Vijayalakshmi’s name figures in the list of 24 lok Sabha and 174 Assembly candidates quite prominently.
While Jagan will be contesting from Pulivendula Assembly constituency, which his mother represented till now, his cousin YS Avinash Reddy will be contesting from Kadapa lok Sabha constituency in Jagan’s place. Vijayalakshmi’s brother P Ravindernath Reddy has been fielded from Kamalapuram Assembly in Kadapa.
Other lok Sabha candidates include industrialists Koneru Prasad from Vijayawada and A Ayodhya Rami Reddy from Narsaraopeta. While Koneru Prasad was arrested in connection with scam in a mega township project in Hyderabad, Ayodya Rami Reddy’s name figures in corruption cases of Jaganmohan Reddy.
Two former Congress MPs — industrialist SPY Reddy and A Venkatrami Reddy — are YSRCP candidates from Nandyal and Anantapur. They won the seats on Congress tickets in the last elections
Anantha Venkatrami Reddy will be taking on another former Congress Minister JC Diwakar Reddy, the TDP candidate.Meanwhile, sitting YSRCP MP from Nellore Mekapati Rajmohan Reddy has been renominated from the same constituency.
After resigning from the Congress and lok Sabha he had won the seat in by-election. Bapatla was the only constituency where the party was yet to name the candidate. Jagan had released party’s manifesto on Sunday promising a new generous scheme “Amma Voddi” under which two children of a poor family will get Rs 500 per month till class 10th, Rs 700 per month in Junior college and Rs 1,000 during graduation.
He has also promised to continue all the welfare schemes of his father including total reimbursement of fees of professional courses. This also includes the highly-popular Aarogyasri scheme which will be expanded and all the diseases will be brought under this free medical care scheme for the poor.
Apart from seven-hour free power supply for farmers, Jagan has also promised to supply 150 MW of power for Rs 100 only to all the poor families. Other promises include a world-class capital city for Andhra Pradesh and a waiver of loans of the self-help groups of women up to Rs 20,000.