The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) functionaries were visibly buoyed by the opening of the party office in Vempalle mandal on Sunday.
Vempalle is considered the heartland of the Pulivendula constituency represented by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, and the office is meant to serve the Pulivendula Assembly as well as Kadapa parliamentary constituencies.
TDP Polit Bureau member and Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency in-charge R. Sreenivasa Reddy formally declared the office open as part of the campaigning for B. Ramgopal Reddy, the party’s candidate for the Rayalaseema graduates’ constituency.
Speaking at a meeting organised on the occasion, Mr. Sreenivasa Reddy aid the TDP could easily win the Pulivendula Assembly as well as Kadapa Lok Sabha seats with a little hard work and strategy.
“This region has not been gifted away to the YSR family, and we have stakes here,” he said, urging the cadre to take the ruling party’s failures to the nook and corner of the constituency.
He questioned whether Kadapa MP Y.S. Avinash Reddy was aware of the local issues.
The party rued the water problem being faced by several villages in the constituency. “The government is unable to make payments even for the MGNREGA works, leave alone other contract works done in Pulivendula constituency,” he said.
Senior leader S.V. Satish Reddy, who has been the party’s face in the Pulivendula constituency for years, was conspicuously missing, as many, including Mr. Sreenivasa Reddy, recalled to have visited the Assembly segment for the first time in his absence.
Mr. Satish Reddy has been, of late, maintaining distance from the party activities.