Visakhapatnam: TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu on Sunday declined the party ticket to M Sribharat (29), grandson of the late MVVS Murthi , a two-time Lok Sabha member for Visakhapatnam , citing a family relationship.Sribharat, a Stanford University graduate who is president of Gitam Deemed to be University, a position once held by Murthi, and N Lokesh, Naidu’s son, are both married to the daughters of Nandamuri Balakrishna, a film actor. Naidu has fielded Lokesh for Mangalagiri assembly seat. Elections to the state assembly and Parliament are scheduled to be held on April 11.“The CM told us that as Lokesh has already been declared as the party candidate for Mangalagiri, it would not be possible for the party to give the ticket to Sribharat, because then there would be 2 candidates from one family,” M S Pattabhi Rama Rao, father of Sribharat, told TOI.Rama Rao said several senior party leaders were clearly unhappy with Sribharat for opening a campaign office in the city, weeks before the Election Commission had even announced the election schedule. “Sribharat is devastated by this development, but in hindsight, we should perhaps have waited for a while before projecting him as the TDP candidate,” he said.Naidu is reported to have decided to give the LS ticket to Sabbam Hari, 68, a former Congress Party MP and a former mayor of the port city. Hari, who had been a member of the 15th Lok Sabha, has been in political hibernation since 2014, hoping for a political restoration.The Visakhapatnam LS election appears set for a fierce contest, with D Purandeswari , another former Congress MP from the city currently being considered to be fielded by BJP , because Kambhampati Haribabu, who represented Visakhapatnam in the 16th Lok Sabha, has reportedly decided not to seek re-election.“There is a 90% chance now that Purandeswari will be fielded in place of Haribabu,” a senior BJP official said on Sunday.YSRC has nominated M V V Satyanarayana, a prominent real estate developer, while Jana Sena of film actor Pawan Kalyan may be fielding V V Lakshminarayana, a former Indian Police Service officer.Haribabu had won the seat in 2014 with a margin of 90,000 votes, defeating YS Vijayamma, the widow of former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Rao, of YSRCP. Haribabu had the backing of TDP, which had an alliance with BJP in that election, both for the state assembly and Parliament.The contest this time will have candidates from all the major political parties, but the contest is seen as being between TDP and YSRCP.

Stay updated with all the Latest Vijayawada headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.