Karnataka former chief secretary Ratna Prabha could be BJP's Tirupati bypoll candidate

The BJP is considering Karnataka former chief secretary K Ratna Prabha as its candidate for the Tirupati Lok Sabha bypoll.

The Election Commission of India on Tuesday announced the byelection schedule for the Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh and Nagarajuna Sagar assembly constituency in Telangana, along with the Belgaum Lok Sabha in Karnataka and 13 other Assembly constituencies across the country.

All these bypolls would be held on April 17 and the results declared on May 2.

Also Read | Bypolls to two Lok Sabha and 14 assembly seats on April 17: EC

The Tirupati Parliament (SC Reserved) and Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly seats fell vacant last year following the deaths of the sitting legislators.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi's Nagarjuna Sagar MLA Nomula Narasimhaiah passed away in December.

Tirupati YSRCP MP Balli Durga Prasad Rao died in September in a private hospital in Chennai due to a heart attack, while reportedly recovering from Covid-19.

YSRCP chief Jaganmohan Reddy has picked Maddela Gurumoorthy, a physiotherapist, as the party candidate, while sending Balli's son Kalyan Chakravarthy to the Andhra Pradesh legislative council as an MLC.

TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu had earlier announced former Congress leader and union minister Panabaka Lakshmi as their candidate.

Also Read | Bypolls to Belgaum Lok Sabha seat, Maski, Basavakalyan Assembly constituencies on April 17

The BJP is finalising its candidate, after ally Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan agreed to let the saffron party contest from Tirupati.

A senior BJP leader told DH that Karnataka's former top bureaucrat Ratna Prabha, who joined the BJP in 2019, is one of the frontrunners.

Dasari Srinivasulu, AP ex-IAS officer, Krishna Prasad, an ex-IPS of Telangana cadre, Muni Subramanyam, party's Dalit morcha leader are the other strong contestants for the candidature.

The party is expected to make the announcement in a day or two.

Meanwhile, the Congress party has announced veteran leader, former minister K Jana Reddy as its Nagarjuna Sagar candidate. The seat, a Congress stronghold, was gained by the TRS in 2018.