Several senior TDP leaders feel discriminated by the party leadership in implementing the so-called ‘one family, one ticket’ rule in the allocation of tickets for the ensuing Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. They are unable to digest the fact they were given a raw deal in this regard while Chandrababu Naidu unabashedly bestowed two or more seats to a few other families.

Paritala Sunitha, JC Diwakar Reddy and Ayyannapatrudu are among this ilk of senior leaders who nursed grand hopes of ensuring party tickets for their children this time around. They left no stone unturned to succeed in their efforts. But, as soon as the TDP announced its latest list of candidates for the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, they realised that they were left high and dry by their leader. They blame it on their leader’s ‘greed’ that made them feel like lesser mortals while a few affluent families walked away with undue benefits.

While Paritala Sunitha, the widow of Paritala Ravi, was re-nominated from Raptadu Assembly constituency, Chandrababu refused to accommodate her son Paritala Sriram as the TDP candidate in Dharmavaram. Naidu gave away this constituency to BJP as part of the alliance seat-sharing, largely to strengthen the hands of the saffron party and its ticket aspirant Varadapuram suri there.

In a similar case, JC Diwakar Reddy’s son JC Pavan Reddy’s fate is hanging in balance as the party held back its decision on the Anantapur Lok Sabha seat. There are fears that the party may deny him the opportunity, citing the candidacy of his cousin and JC Prabhakar Reddy’s son JC Asmith Reddy in Tadipatri.

TDP’s temperamental leader in Visakhapatnam district Ayyannapatrudu too is a sulking soul now after his son’s hopes to contest for Anakapalle MP seat have almost been dashed by both Chandrababu Naidu and Lokesh.

Anakapalle was one of the three Lok Sabha seats allotted to Janasena initially a few weeks ago. But with the BJP also coming into the alliance mix, it is being speculated that it will eventually go to the saffron party. BJP’s CM Ramesh is touted to grab this seat to test his luck in a direct election.

In all the above cases, the TDP chief is said to have invoked the ‘one family, one ticket’ rule to deny tickets for these leaders’ kin. Interestingly, Naidu did not apply this yardstick across the board and tweaked it to his convenience in some cases, which is only adding insult to injury for these ‘sore losers’.

Feeling let down, these senior leaders are reportedly expressing their displeasure in their internal circles with Chandrababu Naidu’s double standards. Letting out their fury, they are not even hesitating to question as to why the TDP chief did not follow the same rule when it came to his own Nara-Nandamuri clan and its extended family, according to sources. These leaders are also reportedly citing the cases of Yanamala and Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy families.

There are as many as four leaders from the extended Nara-Nandamuri family – Chandrababu Naidu (Kuppam), Nara Lokesh (Mangalagiri), Balakrishna (Hindupur) and the latter’s younger son-in-law Motkupalli Bharat or ‘Geetham’ Bharat — in the electoral fray this time.

From the Yanamala family, TDP veteran Ramakrishnudu is already an MLC. His ‘samdhi’ or ‘viyyankudu’ Putta Sudhakar Yadav was allotted the party’s Assembly ticket from Mydukur of YSR Kadapa district. Ramakrishnudu’s daughter Divya is being fielded from Tuni Assembly constituency while her husband and Sudhakar Yadav’s son Putta Mahesh Yadav has recently been nominated for the Eluru Lok Sabha seat.

The seniors also refer to the dramatic developments in Nellore district where new entrant Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy and his wife Prashanthi were chosen for Lok Sabha and Assembly seats respectively.

Chandrababu Naidu doing business with party tickets

The TDP senior leaders allege internally that Chandrababu Naidu has turned the ticket allotment exercise into a lucrative business, for his own personal gains. Both Yanamala Ramakrishnudu and Putta Sudhakar Yadav have amassed wealth over the last few decades and they are now able to use the money power to ensure party tickets to their family, they allege.

Additionally, there are speculations that Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy and his daughter were allotted the TDP tickets after obtaining the former’s commitment to extensively splurge on the party’s candidates in the coming elections.

On the whole, the senior leaders were of the opinion that their inability to put a hefty price on party tickets have made their kin the ‘sore losers’.