Chittoor, May 5 : While Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President N. Chandrababu Naidu has his eyes set on another term in power, the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in Andhra Pradesh is going all out to defeat him in Kuppam in his home district Chittoor.

As part of its slogan ‘why not 175’, the YSRCP has been focusing on Kuppam, which is represented by the former chief minister since 1989.

Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has been trying to undermine his arch-rival in Kuppam since 2014 and he stepped up the efforts after coming to power in 2019. The same year he upgraded Kuppam town from Nagar Panchayat to Grade-III municipality.

Jagan’s efforts yielded results as YSRCP won Kuppam municipality and all rural local bodies in the 2021 local body elections.

For the first time in three decades, the TDP lost all local bodies in Chandrababu Naidu’s home constituency.

It was following this win that the ruling party came up with the ‘why not 175’ slogan to win all Assembly seats in the 2024 polls.

After YSRCP’s sweep in local body elections, Jagan Mohan Reddy visited Kuppam in 2022. Since then the party made consistent efforts to undermine Naidu's supremacy on his home turf.

YSRCP's Chittoor strongman and minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy led the attempts by launching various welfare programmes in Kuppam on a mission mode. Ramachandra Reddy’s son and MP P. V. Midhun Reddy personally oversaw the implementation of the schemes

Jagan visited Kuppam again early this year to inaugurate several developmental projects and also released water to Kuppam town through the recently constructed branch canal from the Handri Neeva Sujala Sravanthi reservoir. The YSRCP claimed that this met a long-pending demand of the people of Kuppam which Naidu did meet despite being in power.

The Chief Minister accused Naidu of completely neglecting his own constituency, which he had been representing for the last three and a half decades. “He has lost his eligibility to be your MLA,” he said.