Amaravati (AP): Fighting a do-or-die electoral battle April 11 in Andhra Pradesh, the main opposition YSR Congress (YSRC) announced Sunday its candidates for all 175 Assembly seats, retaining almost all the sitting MLAs and giving a major share to the backward communities.
YSRC chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy who is aspiring to become the Chief Minister in the footsteps of his late father YS Rajasekhara Reddy will for the second time, contest from his family pocket borough Pulivendula in Kadapa district. In 2014, Jagan won the seat by a record margin of 74,256 votes, the highest in the state.
The announcement of candidates, however, triggered some rebellion in the party in a few districts, including Guntur, Prakasam and Visakhapatnam where some aspirants were denied tickets.
Floated in 2011 after Jagan quit the Congress when he was denied the Chief Minister’s chair, the YSRC lost the race in the 2014 general elections, getting just 0.3 per cent less vote share than the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) which captured power winning 106 seats in alliance with the BJP then.
However, even though YSRC won 67 seats, as many as 23 of its MLAs defected to the ruling party in 2016 and 2017. In the context, the 2019 election is a do-or-die battle for the YSRC as its political longevity will largely depend on election result.
Political strategist Prashant Kishore, who worked the electoral magic for Narendra Modi in 2014, is YSRC’s consultant now. Kishore and his team conducted various rounds of surveys to select the candidates for the Assembly elections.
The YSRC has only 15 women candidates out of the 175 and 41 from the backward classes. Twelve former ministers, 37 former MLAs and 15 doctors have also been chosen for the assembly battle.
PTI