The Tirupati by election is underway on the 17th of April. Nearly 1.17 lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes and decide the fate of 41 candidates.
However, people of five villages decided to boycott the Tirupati by elections for the Lok Sabha seat. Villagers of Uranduru, Kandriga, Narayanapuram, Dommarapalem and Panekaladu villages decided to not vote in ongoing Tirupati Loksabha by-elections.
Speaking to the media, villagers said that they decided to not vote in the elections to protest against the State Government. Recently, the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) Government led by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy decided to merge the aforementioned villages of Renigunta into the Tirupati municipality.
The merger would lead to their farming and dairy production leading to disturbance to their livelihood. In addition, it would also force them to pay taxation, which they are in no position to do. Hence, in order to protest the same and boycotted theTirupati by elections.
The Tirupati Lok Sabha by election started at 7:00 A.M., peacefully and would continue till 7:00 P.M. The Tirupati Parliamentary constituency, a Scheduled Caste (SC) reserved seat fell vacant after the YSRCP Member of Parliament (MP) Balli Durga Prasad succumbed to the Novel Coronavirus. All the major parties of A.P., including the alliance of JanaSena Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the TDP and the YSRCP are eying to secure the seat.
There would be a tough competition between the candidates of the aforementioned parties. From the YSRCP, Dr. Gurumurthy is the MP candidate, from the TDP, the former Union Minister Panabaka Lakshmi is contesting for the Tirupati by elections and from JanaSena-BJP alliance, former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer K. Ratna Prabha is in the fray.
The results of the crucial Tirupati by poll would be announced on the 2nd of May
