Telugu megastar and MLA K Chiranjeevi, who filed his nomination for March 30 election to Rajya Sabha on Monday said he would not insist on allocation of the Tirupati Assembly seat to any of his family members.
Bypoll to this seat becomes inevitable as Chiranjeevi, the incumbent Congress MLA, will resign from it after he formally gets elected to the Upper House of Parliament. Speculation was rife the actor-turned-politician would like to field either his younger brother and actor Nagendra Babu or brother-in-law Allu Aravind from the temple town.
“I have a close affinity to Tirupati but I shall not insist on allotting the Assembly seat to my kin,” Chiranjeevi told reporters after filing his papers.
Chiranjeevi’s assertion clears the way for Jay Galla, an industrialist who has set his eyes on Tirupati.
Jay, Chairman of CII-Andhra Pradesh, is the son of Andhra Pradesh Mines Minister Galla Aruna Kumari, who represents Chandragiri in their native Chittoor district.
“What’s wrong in my son contesting from Tirupati? Our family has been in politics for decades and serving the people,” Aruna Kumari said when reporters raised the issue a few days ago.
Once the Tirupati Assembly seat falls vacant, the total number of constituencies that face by-elections in the state in the next few months will rise to 18.
Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar recently disqualified 16 ruling Congress MLAs and accepted the resignation of an erstwhile Praja Rajyam Party legislator for voting against the Government on the no-confidence motion (in December last). These 17 MLAs are sailing with YSR Congress of Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
Barring one (Parakal) in Telangana, rest of the constituencies are in Andhra-Rayalaseema regions.
–Agencies