AMARAVATI: The former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu-led Telugu Desam Party (TDP) released its first list of MLA candidates for 13 seats for the Lok Sabha polls which included two YSR Congress MPs who defected from the party recently.
The party also announced the third list of TDP candidates for 11 more Assembly segments. The TDP had previously released the names of 128 candidates for the Assembly in their first and second lists on February 24th and March 11th, respectively.
"We joined NDA with the agenda of better prospects for the state and on the other hand we have chosen candidates who can fight for the state and express a strong voice in the Parliament," said TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu in a post on X.
The Assembly elections in the state will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls on May 13.
Naidu said that the new set of 11 Assembly candidates and 13 Lok Sabha candidates have been zeroed in after taking opinions from the public.
Under the TDP-JSP-BJP alliance, TDP will be contesting in 144 assembly seats out of 175 seats and 17 Lok Sabha seats as part of the NDA alliance in Andhra Pradesh.
The TDP has announced candidates for 139 Assembly and 13 Lok Sabha constituencies. Candidates for five more assembly seats and four Lok Sabha seats are due to be announced.
Recently, NDA constituents finalised their seat-sharing formula for the Parliamentary and Assembly polls, according to which the BJP will contest six Lok Sabha and 10 assembly seats.
As part of the deal, actor-politician Pawan Kalyan's Janasena will contest two Lok Sabha and 21 assembly seats.
Andhra Pradesh has a total of 25 Lok Sabha and 175 Assembly seats.
Narasaraopeta YSRCP Lok Sabha member L Sri Krishna Devarayulu has been fielded from the same constituency while V Prabhakar Reddy, a YSRCP Rajya Sabha member, will contest from Nellore.
T Krishna Prasad, who will contest from the Bapatla Lok Sabha constituency, is a former IPS officer and was earlier in the BJP.
G Harish Madhur, TDP's candidate from Amalapuram Lok Sabha constituency is the son of former Lok Sabha speaker G M C Balayogi, who died in a chopper crash in 2002.
Other candidates include K Ram Mohan Naidu from Srikakulam constituency, M Bharat (Visakhapatnam), P Mahesh Yadav (Eluru) and K Sivanadh (Vijayawada).
Likewise, P Chandrasekhar will contest from Guntur Lok Sabha constituency, D Prasada Rao (Chittoor), B Nagaraju (Kurnool), B Shabari (Nandyala) and B K Parthasaradhi (Hindupur).
(With additional inputs from PTI, Online Desk)
