When the GHMC elections were on, the BJP has pitted top leaders like Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Smriti Irani, Prakash Jawadekar, Tejaswi Surya and a bevy of other leaders into the campaign. But, for Nagarjunasagar, the zing is missing in the BJP campaign. No big name is ready to campaign in Nagarjunasagar.
It’s not just the absence of party’s bigwigs in the campaign. It is the total non-cooperation that the BJP candidate is getting from the leaders in the constituency. District BJP president K Sridhar Reddy is lukewarm towards Ravi Naik. His wife K Nivedita Reddy tried to get the party ticket for the bypoll. She had even filed her nomination papers. Though she was present during the Friday campaign of the party, it was clear that the couple were sulking and unhappy. Similarly, Kadari Anjaiah Yadav, who too wanted the party ticket, had left the BJP and joined the TRS. With neither local leaders, nor the state and national leaders campaigning for the party, Ravi Naik, the BJP candidate, is a lonely man.
Insiders say that this explains why he cried bitterly while seeking votes in Nagarjunasagar. The photos of a bitterly crying Naik asking for votes has gone viral on the social media on Friday.