Tirupati, Mar 26 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party has declared the former Karnataka chief secretary Ratna Prabha as its candidate for the Tirupati Lok Sabha bypoll.
"Congratulations to former IAS officer Ratna Prabha for being selected as the BJP - Janasena candidate for the Tirupati bypoll," said a BJP leader late night on Thursday.
The BJP leaders said Prabha's government job mostly revolved around people's lives and stated that she is the right choice to serve the people.
"We request Tirupati Parliamentary constituency people to make her victorious and obtain the opportunity of receiving her valuable services," he said.
The former IAS officer who hails from Andhra Pradesh thanked the BJP leadership for choosing her as its candidate.
"I am so very grateful and thankful to our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, J.P. Nadda, Santhosh, Somu Veerraju, Sunil Deodhar and Pawan Kalyan for reposing faith and confidence in my candidature for Tirupati bye-election. I will do my best," said Prabha.
Andhra BJP president Somu Veerraju called on the people of Tirupati to make Prabha victorious in the forthcoming Scheduled Castes-reserved Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency bypoll scheduled for April 17.
He claimed that it is time to save and change Tirupati.
During her long career as a bureaucrat, Prabha had also served in her home state for some years and was compelled to answer the courts in the alleged corruption cases involving the current Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, however, she later got relief from the courts.
Two years ago when Reddy won a landslide election in 2019 to become the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, the BJP candidate issued a statement hailing his victory and lauding his late father Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, under whom she worked as a bureaucrat in some key roles.
"Ten years ago on September 2nd 2009, a dynamic CM Rajasekhar Reddy died in a tragic air crash. Ten years later his son comes back to power as CM of AP. Today YSR's soul will rest in peace," she said in 2019.
Prabha comes from a family of IAS officers. Her father, husband and brother served as IAS officers.