The temple town of Tirupati is all set to witness a high-voltage campaign on April 14, the penultimate day of the electioneering for the by-poll to Tirupati parliamentary constituency scheduled to be held on April 17.
Reason: YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has decided do a whirlwind campaign in Tirupati on the day.
At the same time, his arch rival and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu is also campaigning in the constituency on the same day.
It is learnt the top leaders of the Bhartiya Janata Party, including its national president J P Nadda, also may campaign in Tirupati on the same day or a day before. Definitely, it is going to heat up the political atmosphere in the town.
This will be the first election after two years in which Jagan will be undertaking election campaign. Though initially, the YSRC sources said Jagan won’t be campaigning in Tirupati by-polls, as he had appointed ministers in-charge for every assembly segment, who have taken care of everything for the party candidate M Gurumoorthy.
However, reports from the party intelligence revealed that the battle is going to be tough in Tirupati. Though the YSR Congress party is going to win the seat anyway, the margin of victory may not be as high as Jagan has expected, say sources.
Apparently, the chief minister has fixed a target of a majority of at least five lakhs for Gurumoorthy over his nearest rival Panabaka Lakshmi of the TDP. But party leaders reportedly told him that they would try for a maximum of three lakh votes’ majority.
This reportedly made Jagan angry and he told them he would personally enter the scene and take up the campaign. His entry would definitely change the scenario and the victory margin would definitely go up, sources said.
