Four former union ministers get TDP nomination

The Telugu Desam Party on late Monday night released the final and complete list of candidates for 25 Lok Sabha seats and the remaining 36 Assembly seats after thorough scrutiny. With this, the ruling party put an end to speculation and set the campaign in smooth motion.

The LS list included names of four former union ministers Kotla Surya Prakash Reddy (Kurnool), Vairicharla Kishore Chandra Deo (Araku), Panabaka Lakshmi (Tirupati) and Ashok Gajapathi Raju(Vizianagaram). Party Chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu also nominated two of his cabinet ministers Ch Adinarayana Reddy (Kadapa) and Sidha Raghava Rao (Ongole) as LS candidates. Galla Jayadev (Guntur), K Rammohan Naidu (Srikakulam) and N Siva Prasad (Chittoor-SC) who made the Parliament hear the voice of Andhra Pradesh on the Special Category issue were nominated once again.

On the other hand, the final list of Assembly candidates had few surprises as sitting MLAs Meesala Geetha, Yamini Bala, Chand Basha, M Srinivasa Rao, and SV Mohan Reddy were denied tickets. However, the Bhuma family of Kurnool district got two tickets with the TDP chief giving Nandyala assembly seat to Bhuma Brahmanda Reddy, brother of Bhuma Akhila Priya the state tourism minister representing Allagadda. Aditi, daughter of former aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju was allocated Vizianagaram assembly seat.

Congress: Pallam Raju from Kakinada

The AICC also released its list of candidates for Andhra Pradesh on Monday night in New Delhi. However, the party has kept crucial Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam and Nandyala seats in abeyance. Out of the 22 Loksabha candidates that secured nominations include former minister of state for defence Pallam Raju, former MP s JD Seelam (Bapatla SC), Kanumuri Bapiraju, (Narsapuram) and Chinta Mohan (Tirupati-SC).

The party, however, kept the nomination for Peeleru Assembly which was earlier represented by former chief minister of united AP, Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy in abeyance. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s brother is the TDP candidate from that constituency.

Pawan might contest from two segments

The Janasena Chief Pawan Kalyan also released his third list without his name in it. It is said that he will be contesting from Gajuwaka in Visakhapatnam and another place just like his brother K Chiranjeevi did during the Praja Rajyam Party days. The Janasena released list of 13 Assembly with one change in its earlier list and one LS seat on Monday night. Bellamkonda Saibaba is the JSP candidate for Ongole Lok Sabha segment.