Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is looking at the five Lok Sabha seats now represented by the YSR Congress party in the State, anticipating a by-election. The five YSR Congress MPs have submitted their resignations and are pressing for acceptance to force a by-election. The five MPs have met Lok Sabha speaker on May 29 and are scheduled to meet again on June 6. This is likely to be the final meeting of the MPs with the speaker to get the resignations approved. Once the resignations are approved by-election is likely to be held as there is more than six months’ time for the next general election.
Chandrababu Naidu wants to test his popularity in this election by contesting. Though the MPs have resigned in protest against the denial of special category status to the State, Chandrababu Naidu wants to contest here alleging that he is the better leader than Jaganmohan Reddy to get the special category status and develop the State. He wants to prove to the people he is the only leader fighting for the State, while others are playing politics.
Setting his goal to win all five Lok Sabha seats, he dared Jaganmohan Reddy to get the MPs resignations approved and face him in the by-election. Chandrababu Naidu had already gone into the election mode. He had tuned up himself for the elections and is now tuning his party leaders and cadre for the polls. He is making best use of the Nava Nirmana Deeksha to tune up the people too for the next election. He plans to win at least 130 MLA seats and all 25 MPs seats in the 2019 elections. To achieve this, he wants to test the peoples’ pulse in the by-election for the five Lok Sabha seats, which covers 35 Assembly constituencies spread over four districts of Prakasam, Nellore, Chittoor and Kadapa districts.
For the first time in his career, Chandrababu Naidu is preparing to go alone, without alliance with any party. He had done with all parties except the Congress in every election and there is no party left. He had aligned with the CPI and CPM in the past, with the BJP and Jana Sena in the last election. As there is no party available for him now, he is going alone and wants the by-elections to the five Lok Sabha seats as a laboratory to test his new fete.
The YSR Congress MPs are confident of getting their resignations approved by the Lok Sabha Speaker when they meet her on June 6. This is two days ahead of Chandrababu Naidu’s week-long Nava Nirmana Deeksha event, which is set to end on June 8 and that gives him enough mileage to reach out to the people with the by-poll slogan. He has to win all the five seats, if he wants to win the next election and if he loses here, that would mean his party’s defeat in 2019 elections. Hence, he had dared Jaganmohan Reddy to get the resignations approved and by-election scheduled.
Thus, in every aspect, it is a tough time for Chandrababu Naidu and his party.
