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22 first timers make it to LS from AP

Shireen in Hyderabad

As many as 22 first-timers were elected to the Lok Sabha while 20 sitting members failed to get re-elected in the just-concluded polls in Andhra Pradesh.

An apparently strong pro-incumbency factor worked to the disadvantage of the Congress while the Telugu Desam Pradesh-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance benefited from fielding many new faces.

Of the 42 Lok Sabha members elected from Andhra Pradesh, the TDP has the largest contingent of 29, followed by the BJP seven, the Congress five and the Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen one.

Among the first-timers, 16 belong to the TDP, four to the BJP and two to the Congress.

Among sitting members re-elected to the House are the outgoing Lok Sabha speaker G M C Balayogi, former Union ministers K Yerran Naidu, Bandaru Dattatreya and S Venugopalachary apart from N K Ramakrishna Reddy, Bhuma Nagi Reddy, M Rajaiah, G Ganga Reddy, Ch Suguna Kumari and Ch Suresh Reddy (all from the TDP), U V Krishnam Raju and Ch Vidyasagar Rao (from the BJP), N Janardhana Reddy (Congress) and Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi (Majlis-e-Ittehaadul Muslimeen, Hyderabad).

Many Congress stalwarts and sitting members fell by the wayside as the TDP-BJP combine wrested their seats. Prominent losers among the Congress included Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy, M Baga Reddy, P Upendra, G Venkataswamy, P Shiv Shankar, Kavuri Sambasiva Rao, Nadendla Bhaskar Rao, Rayapati Sambasiva Rao, T Subbarami Reddy and Chinta Mohan. Both the CPI sitting members -- Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy (Nalgonda) and Sode Ramaiah (Bhadrachalam) -- lost to TDP rivals.

Former Union ministers S Jaipal Reddy and Renuka Chowdary were lucky. They made it to the Lok Sabha on Congress tickets from Miryalaguda and Khammam respectively. They joined the Congress on the eve of the polls after quitting the Janata Dal and the TDP respectively. It is the first time that Renuka Chowdary has been elected to the Lok Sabha. She was a member of the Rajya Sabha for two terms. Jaipal Reddy has had stints as a member of both the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha.

The first-timers to the Lok Sabha include seasoned politicians Mudragada Padmanabham, K E Krishnamurthy, Karnam Balaramakrishna Murthy, B K Parthasarathi, Gadde Ramamohan, Ambati Brahmanaiah, B Venkateswarlu and G Sukhender Reddy (all TDP), A Narendra and SPPBK Satyarayana Rao from the BJP and Botsa Satyanarayana and sitting MLA Y S Vivekananda Reddy from the Congress.

The new faces also include political novices like D Mary Vijayakumari, D V G Sankara Rao, G Srinivas Rao, Y Venkateswara Rao, V Rajeshwaramma, film producer D Rama Naidu, G Ramaiah, journalist K Srinivasulu (all from TDP), N Venkatswamy, A P Jitender Reddy (both BJP).

While only one Muslim member was elected from the state, the forward castes constitute more than half the number of members and the backward classes and the scheduled castes and tribes account for the rest. Incidentally, the TDP has won all the eight reserved seats -- the six seats for the scheduled castes and the two for the scheduled tribes.

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