Amaravati, Sons of at least six former Chief Ministers of <keyword id="19896313" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="andhra-pradesh" source="keywords">Andhra Pradesh</keyword> will be in the fray for May 13 simultaneous polls to the Andhra Pradesh <keyword id="19906943" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="assembly" source="keywords">Assembly</keyword> and Lok Sabha while daughters of two former Chief Ministers are also likely to join the race. Leading the list of high-profile candidates is the Chief Minister and <keyword id="20270569" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ysr" source="keywords">YSR</keyword> <keyword id="19895371" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="congress" source="keywords">Congress</keyword> Party (YSRCP) President Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. The son of the former Chief Minister of erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh late Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy will be seeking re-election from the Pulivendula constituency in YSR family's home district Kadapa. Pulivendula has been considered a pocket borough of the YSR family since 1978. Jagan Mohan Reddy will be seeking re-election from here for a third consecutive term. His sister and state Congress Chief Y. S. Sharmila is likely to enter the fray from the Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency to challenge the sitting MP and cousin Y. S. Avinash Reddy. Kadapa has also been the stronghold of the YSR family since 1989. Children of another former Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) founder N. T. Rama Rao will also be testing their political fortunes. Interestingly, like YSR, the children of <keyword id="20237138" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ntr" source="keywords">NTR</keyword> will also be contesting on tickets of different parties. NTR's son and popular actor N. Balakrishna will be looking for a hat-trick as MLA from the Hindupur constituency. NTR himself was elected from Hindupur in 1985, 1989 and 1994. His elder son N. Harikrishna was also elected from here in the by-poll held in 1996 following the death of the thespian. NTR's daughter D. <keyword id="21049483" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="purandeswari" source="keywords">Purandeswari</keyword>, who is president of the state BJP, is also likely to contest for Parliament. A former union minister, Purandeswari had quit Congress to join the BJP in 2014 after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. TDP and BJP are contesting the polls in alliance with the Jana Sena Party of popular actor <keyword id="20009920" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="pawan-kalyan" source="keywords">Pawan Kalyan</keyword>. Former Chief Minister and TDP President N. Chandrababu Naidu's son <keyword id="19925616" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nara-lokesh" source="keywords">Nara Lokesh</keyword> will again test his political fortunes from the Mangalagiri Assembly seat. He had unsuccessfully contested the same seat in 2019. Another former Chief Minister <keyword id="21049485" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nadendla-bhaskar" source="keywords">Nadendla Bhaskar</keyword> Rao's son <keyword id="21049484" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="nadendla-manohar" source="keywords">Nadendla Manohar</keyword> is contesting for Assembly from Tenali on a Jana Sena ticket. Chairman of Jana Sena's Political Affairs Committee, Manohar was elected to the Assembly of the united Andhra Pradesh from Tenail in 2004 and 2009 on the Congress ticket. He had served as the last Speaker of the united Andhra Pradesh Assembly. Earlier, Bhaskar Rao was elected from Tenali on Congress ticket in 1989. Former Chief Minister Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy's son Kotla Jayasurya Prakash Reddy will be contesting for Assembly from Dhone constituency. He will take on Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy of YSRCP. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy was elected from Dhone on Congress ticket in 1994. Jayasurya Prakash Reddy's wife K. Sujatha Reddy was also elected from the constituency on the Congress ticket in 2004. Former Chief Minister N. Janardhan Reddy's son N. Ramkumar Reddy will be testing his political fortunes from Venkatagiri Assembly constituency on YSRCP ticket. He is making his electoral debut. Janardhan Reddy contested on the Congress ticket from Venkatagiri in 1989. His wife N. Rajyalakshmi had also been elected twice from here in 1999 and 2004.

Next-gen enters poll arena: Sons of 6 ex-CMs in fray in Andhra

<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/33891999.cms" />HYDERABAD: The TDP-BJP alliance in Andhra Pradesh, finalized after several twists and turns, is on the verge of collapse, with Chandrababu Naidu seeking the return of four assembly seats allotted to the right-wing party in Seemandhra. Naidu is also learnt to have initiated a telephonic survey with the party cadre seeking their opinion on whether or not to continue with the alliance. 
 These developments followed a controversy over the Rajampet and Narsapur <keyword id="6355187" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Lok-Sabha">Lok Sabha</keyword> seats that have gone to the <keyword id="14666" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="BJP">BJP</keyword> as part of the alliance arrangement. The TDP boss is miffed that the BJP nominated his estranged sister-in-law Purandeswari from Rajampet — which is YSR <keyword id="1575" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Congress">Congress</keyword> chief Jaganmohan Reddy’s territory. Purandeswari, sources said, was bound to lose from there, but Naidu did not want her to be given any ticket, even a losing one. 
 
Naidu is also upset the BJP has not named “his nominee” Raghu Ram Krishnam Raju from the Narasapur seat. Naidu had promised Raju, a businessman who joined BJP recently after quitting YSR Congress, that he would swing a saffron party ticket for him from this seat. Armed with this promise, Raju was campaigning among voters when he realized the BJP had nominated a VHP man for this seat. 
 Raju, after talks with Naidu, filled three nominations from the seat on Thursday: one each in the name of TDP, BJP and as an independent. Raju does not have a BJP ‘B’ form given to official nominees but is confident of bagging it because of his supposed closeness to party president <keyword id="6355121" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Rajnath-Singh">Rajnath Singh</keyword>. 
 
With the alliance threatening to fall apart, Naidu on Thursday originally planned to cut short his campaigning and return to Hyderabad by night. Naidu also pressed on Rajnath to surrender the four assembly seats in Seemandhra where, according to him, the BJP has fielded “weak” candidates. 
 
The seats are Nellore Rural, Tadepalligudem, Santhananuthalapadu and Rajahmundry Urban. In three of the four seats, rebel TDP candidates filed their nominations on Thursday. Naidu’s men also filed nominations in Paderu, Ichhapuram, Kaikalur, Tadepalligudem, Madanapalle, Kadapa, Araku and Rajole which were actually given to the BJP as part of the seat sharing. 
 Now, Naidu is demanding that these four assembly seats be given back to the TDP so that it can field strong candidates on Saturday, the last day for filing the nominations. No nominations will be accepted on Good Friday as it’s a holiday. In return for the four assembly seats, the <keyword id="58641" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="TDP-chief">TDP chief</keyword> is willing to give the BJP two more MLC nominations. As per the original agreed seat-sharing agreement for Seemandhra, the right-wing party was to get 14 assembly seats, four Lok Sabha seats and two MLC nominations. 
 
BJP representatives said they were fed up with Naidu’s tantrums. They also said Naidu is angry because Modi refused to share the dais with him during his election campaign in Andhra Pradesh. But they said Modi is also uneasy with the “Modi for PM and Naidu for CM” slogans raised by TDP. 
 
However, political analysts said Naidu, out of power for 10 years, is under pressure from his cadres to deliver. In his anxiety to win, he had also nominated many money bags and late entrants from the Congress leading to disenchantment among the cadres.

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Next-gen enters poll arena: Sons of 6 ex-CMs in fray in Andhra

IANS

TDP Threatens To Call Off Alliance With BJP

Times Of India