TDP rescinds district model, appoints Parliamentary presidents

Andhra Pradesh Opposition leader and former Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has rejigged the party structure by appointing a president for each parliamentary constituency, rescinding the earlier district model on Sunday.

"Naidu announced on Sunday names of 25 parliamentary unit presidents among others. Naidu indicated that the party had selected hard-working talented leaders who have proved their mettle and passion for working for the people of Andhra Pradesh," said a TDP statement.

The new parliamentary constituency presidents are Kuna Ravi Kumar (Srikakulam), Kimidi Nagarjuna (Vizianagaram), Gummidi Sandhya Rani (Araku), Palla Srinivasa Rao (Visakhapatnam) and Buddha Naga Jagadeeswara Rao (Anakapalli).

According to the party, Srinivasa Rao is a strong leader from the Yadava community while Nagarjuna is just 32 years old, coming from Turpu Kapu community which has a stronghold Uttara Andhra.

Others include Jyothula Naveen (Kakinada), Reddy Anantha Kumari (Amalapuram), Kothapalli Samuel Jawahar (Rajamundry), Thota Seetharama Lakshmi (Narasapuram), Ganni Veeranjaneyulu (Eluru), Konakalla Narayana Rao (Machilipatnam) and Nettem Raghuram (Vijayawada).

Tenali Sravan Kumar (Guntur), G.V. Anjaneyulu (Narsaraopeta), Yeluri Samba Siva Rao (Bapatla), Nukasani Balaji (Ongole), Shaik Abdul Aziz (Nellore), G. Narasimha Yadav (Tirupati) and Pulivarthi Venkata Mani Prasad (Chittoor) have also made the cut.

Reddeppagari Srinivasa Reddy (Rajampeta), Mallela Linga Reddy (Kadapa), Kalava Srinivasulu (Anantapur), B.K. Partha Sarathi (Hindupuram), Somisetty Venkateswarlu (Kurnool) and Gowru Venkata Reddy (Nandyal) culminate the list of new appointees.

In addition to the presidents, Naidu has also appointed 13 observers to supervise affairs in two districts each.

The new observers include Kondapalli Appalanaidu (Machilipatnam and Guntur), Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy (Kakinada and Amalapuram), P.G.V.R. Naidu (Srikakulam and Vizianagaram).

Nimmakayala China Rajappa (Visakhapatnam and Anakapalli), Pithani Satyanarayana (Narsaraopeta and Bapatla), Gadde Rama Mohan (Rajamundry and Narasapuram), Nakka Ananda Babu (Araku).

Dhulipalla Narendra Kumar (Eluru and Vijayawada), Mukku Ugra Narasimha Reddy (Tirupati and Chittoor), Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy (Kadapa and Rajampeta), V. Prabhakar Chowdary (Kurnool and Nandyal), B.T. Naidu (Ananthapur and Hindupuram) and B.C. Janardhana Reddy (Ongole and Nellore).

"This is a major announcement after the 2019 debacle for the TDP, which suffered a setback with just 23 seats in the assembly polls," said the statement.

In rearranging the regional party's ranks, Naidu got meritocracy married with democracy, to project the political outfit as a platform for local issues and to empower commoners to hold the YSRCP government to account.

Before appointing the new leaders, the TDP carried out an exercise to gather insights about the candidates and their acceptability.