VIJAYAWADA: TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu and Janasena chief Pawan Kalyan on Saturday announced their first joint list of 118 candidates for the forthcoming Assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh.
In what came as a disappointment to the leaders and cadres of the Jana Sena Party, its chief, and actor Pawan Kalyan, on Saturday announced that his party will contest only 24 assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats.
Addressing a joint press conference at his residence in Undavalli TDP chief announced the first list of 94 candidates, while Jana Sena, announced the names of 5 candidates. However, Pawan Kalyan did not announce from where he will be contesting.
According to TNIE, Pawan Kalyan, the leader of JSP, has decided to restrict his party's participation to 24 Assembly seats and three Lok Sabha seats. He clarified that the primary aim is to prevent a division in the vote against the current government, and the secondary goal is to achieve a higher success rate.
“Instead of experimenting with more seats, acting constructively, JSP has decided to contest fewer seats and have a 98 % striking rate. In fact, by contesting 3 Lok Sabha seats, we are in a way contesting some 40 seats. Further, considering the BJP joining the alliance, we have reduced our seats,” he said while observing that had they secured at least 10 seats in 2019, they could have asked for more.
Among the 99 names of the candidates announced in the first list of both parties, Chandrababu Naidu will be contesting from Kuppam, his son Nara Lokesh from Mangalagiri, K Atchananaidu from Tekkali, N Balakrishna from Hindupur and JSP political affairs committee chairman Nadendla Manohar from Tenali.
Significantly, 23 new faces out of the 94 on TDP's roster have been given the task of running for election, indicating a daring shift from traditional political tactics. Naidu noted that the list includes 28 candidates with postgraduate degrees, 50 with undergraduate degrees, 3 doctors, 2 Ph.D. holders, and 1 IAS Officer. In contrast, he jokingly remarked that the YSRC list includes red sander smugglers.
The candidates' list was prepared after considering the opinions of more than 1 crore 3 lakh 33 thousand people. TDP chief said “TDP-JSP is ready for election war. This alliance for the state’s future and the brighter future of Andhra Pradesh.”
The two leaders, however, said the seat allocation had been done keeping in mind the need to accommodate the BJP in case the saffron party decides to join the alliance.
(With inputs from PTI)