Metro India News | AMARAVATI

The Pulivendula ZPTC by-election has emerged as a high-stakes political contest, with both the ruling coalition and the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) treating it as a matter of prestige. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has fielded Mareddy Latha Reddy, wife of former TDP leader B.Tech Ravi, while the YSRCP has nominated Tummala Hemant Reddy.

Senior leaders from both sides have descended on Pulivendula, engaging in intense, door-to-door campaigning. The election has become a symbolic turf war in the stronghold of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

In a bid to consolidate the coalition’s efforts, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu held a teleconference with 40 key leaders from TDP, BJP, and allied parties. Stressing unity, Naidu urged them to “work with a single resolve” to secure victory in Pulivendula. He promised to place special focus on the region’s development if the coalition wins the seat.

Reminding participants of his government’s past initiatives, Naidu said that during the earlier TDP regime, Krishna river waters were brought to Pulivendula to protect crops, he claimed the YSRCP had failed to replicate. “We must win Pulivendula ZPTC and develop it in a way Jagan never did,” he asserted.

The meeting saw participation from Pulivendula TDP in-charge B.Tech Ravi, BJP MLA Adinarayana Reddy, and MLC Ramagopal Reddy, among others. Naidu directed leaders to actively promote the coalition government’s welfare schemes during the campaign, pitching them as a credible alternative to YSRCP’s governance.

With stalwart leaders camping in the constituency and both parties framing the by-election as a referendum on local and state leadership, Pulivendula is set to witness a fiercely contested political showdown.