VIJAYAWADA: TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday released the second list of candidates for 34 Assembly seats that the party will be contesting in alliance with the BJP and JSP. Last month, the yellow party had announced names for 94 Assembly constituencies.
Of the total 175 Assembly seats in the State, the TDP will contest 144. So far, it has announced candidates for 128 Assembly segments. It was anticipated that the party would also finalise candidates for a few of the 17 Lok Sabha seats that it will contest, but it did not for reasons unknown.
Of the 34 candidates, one has a Ph.D, 11 are post-graduates and nine are graduates. Majority of the tickets have been given to leaders from the Reddy community in the Rayalaseema region.
Later in the day, actor and Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan also announced that he will contest the Pithapuram Assembly constituency in Kakinada district.
The announcements did not go down well with a few party members of the TDP and the JSP who did not get a ticket to contest the Assembly elections.
Several TDP seniors fail to find place in 2nd list
The TDP cadres staged protests, denouncing the party’s decision to allocate Pithapuram to the Jana Sena and also denying a ticket to Bode Prasad from Penamaluru. The Yellow party suffered a setback as Visakhapatnam South Assembly Constituency in-charge Gandi Babji, who aspired to contest from Vizag South or Madugula constituency, resigned from the TDP. Additionally, Tadepalligudem former MLA Eeli Nani joined the YSRC.
Meanwhile, names of senior TDP leaders such as K Kala Venkata Rao, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Devineni Umamaheswara Rao and Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy were not mentioned in the second list, too. While Venkata Rao is vying to contest from Etcherla, Ganta is focusing on Bheemili, Somireddy on Sarvepalli and Devineni Uma on Mylavaram.
It may be pointed out that the constituencies that the candidates aspire to contest from are yet to be announced. It has been learnt that Naidu had advised Ganta to contest the Cheepurupalli constituency against senior YSRC leader and education minister Botcha Satyanarayana.
Ganta was reluctant as he set his sights on the Bheemili seat. According to sources, Ganta went into a huddle with his followers after learning that his name was not mentioned in the second list. Similarly, Uma has been seeking for a ticket to contest the Mylavaram seat, but the party is planning to shift him to Penamaluru and give the Mylavaram seat to Vasantha Krishna Prasad, the sitting MLA who recently joined the TDP from the YSRC.
The TDP supremo posted the second list on social media platform X and said candidates had been finalised based on public opinion. Each candidate has been carefully selected by considering the preferences and needs of the electorate, he added. Further, he urged the public to bless all TDP candidates in the elections. He emphasised the importance of public support in achieving the party’s goals and reiterated the TDP’s unwavering commitment to serving the interests of the people.