The contentious assembly seat of Anaparthi in East Godavari district, which was allotted to the Bharatiya Janata Party as part of the seat-sharing agreement among the NDA partners, is likely to be given back to the Telugu Desam Party.
An indication to this effect was given by none other than TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu during his election speech at Kovvur on Thursday.
He said though the seat was allotted to the BJP, no final decision has been taken yet and discussions with the BJP were still going on.
Anaparthi was one of the 94 assembly seats for which the TDP declared candidates in the first list. Naidu announced the candidature of former MLA Nallamilli Ramakrishna Reddy. At that time, the BJP did not join the alliance of the TDP and Jana Sena.
But after the BJP entered the scene and declared Daggubati Purandeshwari as the party candidate for Rajahmundry Lok Sabha seat, it wanted Anarparthi assembly seat as well, as it falls under the same parliamentary constituency.
Naidu was forced to agree for the same, resulting in strong revolt from Ramakrishna Reddy. As the BJP declared the candidature of Shivarama Krishnam Raju for Anaparthi assembly seat, Ramakrishna Reddy declared that he would contest as an independent.
Though Naidu sought to pacify him, he is still unrelenting. Meanwhile, the BJP realised that Shivarama Krishnam Raju is not a strong candidate as he is not getting enough support from the TDP and Jana Sena Party cadres.
Since it will impact the prospects of Purandeshwari, the BJP is learnt to have agreed for returning Anaparthi seat to the TDP, if it gets another suitable seat in the bargain, sources said.
