VIJAYAWADA: The Central Election Committee of the BJP, which met late on Saturday night in New Delhi, has finalised 111 candidates, including six from Andhra Pradesh, to contest the upcoming elections. The party released the list on Sunday.
As part of the tripartite alliance with the TDP and Jana Sena in the State, the BJP is set to contest six of the total 25 Lok Sabha seats. They include: Araku, Anakapalle, Rajamahendravaram, Narasapuram, Rajampet and Tirupati.
As expected, Kothapalli Geetha is being fielded from the ST-reserved Araku seat and Chintakunta Munuswamy Ramesh, better known as CM Ramesh, from Anakapalle.
A former YSRC MP, Geetha had joined the saffron party in 2019 after briefly running her Jana Jagruthi Party, which was formed in 2018.
A former Rajya Sabha member, Ramesh joined the BJP in 2019 from TDP. It may be pointed out that there are several cases pending against him. He has also been named as accused number 1 in a `450-crore forgery case.
BJP State president Daggubati Purandeswari is set to contest the Rajamahendravaram Lok Sabha seat. She is the daughter of TDP founder and former chief minister NT Rama Rao.
A former MP and Union minister, Purandeswari joined the saffron party in 2014. She was also appointed as the BJP Mahila Morcha Prabhari.
For Narsapuram Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP has nominated Bhupatiraju Srinivas Varma, the party’s State secretary. Varma has been with the BJP for a long time. He had unsuccessfully contested Narasapuram MP seat on a BJP ticket in 2009.
The BJP has fielded N Kiran Kumar Reddy for the Rajampet Lok Sabha seat. The former chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh joined the BJP in April-2023. Following bifurcation of the State, Kiran Kumar quit the Congress and launched his own party in 2014. However, he returned to the grand old party in 2018.
In the SC-reserved Tirupati Lok Sabha seat, the saffron party has zeroed in on V Varaprasad Rao, who quit the YSRC and joined the BJP on Sunday morning. The Gudur MLA had won as MP from Tirupati in 2014.
