YSRC retains all sitting MLAs, Jagan to seek re-election from Pulivendula

Amaravati (AP): Fighting a do-or-die electoral battle in Andhra Pradesh on April 11, the main opposition YSR Congress on Sunday announced its candidates for all 175 assembly seats, retaining almost all the sitting MLAs and giving a major share to the backward communities.

YSRC chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy who is aspiring to become the chief minister in his late father Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's footsteps 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 Jaganmohan Reddy quit the Congress over denial of chief ministership, 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) that captured power winning 106 seats in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) then.

Though the 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.