HYDERABAD: The BJP released its third list of candidates with 35 names for the forthcoming elections, on Thursday, following the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting headed by BJP national president JP Nadda and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 1. With this announcement, the BJP has now declared candidates for 88 out of the 119 Assembly constituencies.
The third list of candidates has 14 nominees from the Backward Classes (BC), 11 from the Reddy community, five from Scheduled Castes (SCs), three from Scheduled Tribes (STs), and one each from the Brahmin and Velama communities. In total, the party has allotted 32 seats to BCs, 24 to Reddy candidates, 13 to SCs, nine to STs and one each to Kamma, Brahmin, and Velama candidates till now.
State unit president G Kishan Reddy and BJP national OBC Morcha president Dr K Laxman are yet to feature in the list of candidates. However, the BJP has now named the candidates for Amberpet and Musheerabad, from where they used to contest traditionally.
The third list includes many prominent leaders, including former MLA NVSS Prabhakar from Uppal, former ministers Marri Shashidhar Reddy from Sanathnagar, Krishna Yadav from Amberpet, Chittaranjan Das from Jadcherla and P Babu Mohan from Andole, apart from KS Ratnam from Chevella.
Notably, Babu Mohan, who had earlier expressed his disinterest in contesting the election and expressed his displeasure over developments in the party, was still included in the list. However, the BJP has deliberately withheld nominations for certain seats that were demanded by the Jana Sena Party (JSP) as part of the pre-poll alliance. These seats, including Kukatpally, Serilingampally, Nampally, Secunderabad Cantonment and Malkajgiri, have been kept in abeyance to facilitate ongoing negotiations.
The third list has left several ticket aspirants from the Hyderabad region, such as Geetha Murthy, Banda Karthika, and others, puzzled by their omission. Notable exclusions from the list also include Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya’s daughter, Vijaya, and former minister Mukesh Goud’s son, Vikram Goud.
Notably, despite expectations of greater representation, there is a dearth of women candidates. While five women — Virapaneni Padma from Jubilee Hills, Akula Vijaya from Sanathnagar, Bandaru Vijaya from Musheerabad, and Geetha Murthy from the Amberpet segment — were anticipated to secure tickets in various segments under the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency, none were nominated.