Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

`Don't you vote for me' "Don't vote for me"

Staff Reporter

WISHING WELL: A woman offers `harati' to Venkata Satyanarayana during the latter's poll campaign along with the TDP candidate Darsi Madhusudana Rao in Vijayawada on Saturday.

VIJAYAWADA: Here is a candidate, who requests voters not to vote for him. Instead, he participates in the opponent's election campaign and seeks votes for his only rival in the division.

This makes the electioneering in the first division of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) interesting and full of suspense. The TDP leadership, however, has decided to seek votes in favour of the party symbol in the absence of its candidate in their campaign.

Fight between symbols

Senior TDP leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu says it will be a fight between symbols and the switching over of loyalties by a candidate in the last minute will not deter the party from campaigning in the division. The absence of candidate will not give any problem and even the State Election Commission (SEC) has not considered the TDP candidate's withdrawal application filed after 3 p.m. on Friday.

Meanwhile. Mr. Madhusudhan Rao's statements are attracting wide attention. He maintains that though he has been a Congress sympathizer throughout, the TDP leaders have brought pressure on him to enter the election fray. "I don't even have membership in the TDP. I did not even submit the B-form, " Mr. Rao says. At the coordination committee meeting held at TDP Office on Saturday, the leaders decided that all efforts should be made to give a tough fight to the Congress in the first division.

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