Babus don khadi to woo voters

Hyderabad, April 5: Clad in khadi clothes, IAS, IPS and IRS officers, who took VRS to try their luck in politics, are trying their best to woo voters.

Prominent among them are Thota Chandrasekar, Mr Vara Prasada Rao and Mr N Venkataswamy to name a few.
Mr Chandrasekhar, a Maharashtra batch IAS officer, took VRS to join Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam party and is contesting from the Guntur Lok Sabha seat.
Mr Vara Prasada Rao, a Tamil Nadu cadre officer, also joined the PR after taking VRS; he is the PR candidate from the Tirupati Lok Sabha seat.
Interestingly, one of his opponents is Mr N. Venkataswamy, a retired IAS officer, who is contesting on a BJP ticket.
Mr B. Danam, retired IAS officer, could not get a ticket for himself but his son, Mr Vijaykumar, got the Congress nod to contest from Santhanuthalapadu.
Many officers chose to join the PR as they think procuring ticket from this fledgling party would be easy.
Mr K.S.R. Murthy, a retired IAS officer, quit the Congress and joined the PR to get Amalapuram LS ticket. But the party pulled him out in the last minute.
Another interesting fight will be between a retired IPS officer, Mr D.T. Naik, of the PR and an ex-constable, Mr P. Balaram Naik, of the Congress, in the Mahbubabad LS segment.
Mr Mallela Babu Rao, ex-IG, is the BSP candidate in Guntur LS seat.
However, many seasoned politicians are not happy with bureaucrats entering the poll fray: many of them were denied tickets to accommodate the ex-officers.