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Rama Naidu, Vijayarama Rao get TDP tickets

Shireen in Hyderabad

The ruling Telugu Desam Party today released its first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha and state legislative assembly polls in Andhra Pradesh.

Releasing the list in Hyderabad before leaving for the temple town of Tirupati for launching the party's election campaign at a massive rally, Chief Minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu said that the party has renominated many sitting legislators and ministers in the first list of candidates for 106 assembly constituencies. Similarly, members of the dissolved Lok Sabha figure in the first list of 25 candidates.

The assembly has 294 members. Andhra Pradesh sends 42 members to the Lok Sabha.

The TDP, which has entered into a seat-sharing agreement with the Bharatiya Janata Party, has allotted eight Lok Sabha seats and 25 assembly seats to its ally.

The TDP would, thus, contest 36 Lok Sabha and 269 assembly seats.

Prominent among the Lok Sabha candidates are former speaker Ganti Mohana Chandra C Balayogi (Amalapuram), TD parliamentary party leader and former Union minister K Yerran Naidu (Srikakulam), Telugu film producer and director D Rama Naidu (Bapatla), sitting members of the 12th Lok Sabha N Ramakrishna Reddy (Chittoor), Bhuma Nagi Reddy (Nandyal), M Rajaiah (Siddipet), K Ganga Reddy (Nizamabad), Dr S Venugopalachari (Adilabad), Suguna Kumari (Peddapalli) and Chada Suresh Reddy (Hanumakonda).

The party candidates for the assembly election figuring in the first list include ministers P Ashok Gajapathi Raju, T Sitaram, G S S Shivaji, K Pratibha Bharathi, B Satyanarayana Murthy, Kodela Siva Prasada Rao, Damacherla Anjaneyulu, B Veera Reddy, B V Mohan Reddy, K E Prabhakar, A Chandrasekhar, C Krishna Yadav, T Devender Goud, G Nagesh, Kadiam Srihari, Tummala Nageswara Rao, assembly deputy speaker N Md Farook, AP State Wakf Board chairman Syed Yousuf Ali, and a large number of sitting members.

Former Warangal MP Ajmeera Chandulal is being fielded from the Mulug assembly constituency.

The chief minister announced that former CBI director K Vijayarama Rao, who recently joined the TDP, would be fielded from the Khairatabad assembly constituency in the twin cities.

The constituency is presently represented by Congress legislature party leader P Janardhan Reddy.

Senior TDP MLA and ethics committee chairman N Yethiraja Rao administered an oath to Chandrababu Naidu who, in turn, administered the oath to the 25 Lok Sabha candidates and the 106 assembly candidates at NTR Trust complex which houses the TDP office.

The candidates pledged to follow the party principles and ideals, fight against corruption, remain people-friendly, and work for people's progress.

Chandrababu Naidu said that the second list of party candidates would be released on August 15.

Defending the electoral understanding with the BJP, he said, "It is only a seat-sharing arrangement and not an poll alliance as such. Our aim is to wipe out the Congress from the state. That is why we have come together to fight against the Congress, which is bringing bad name to the Telugu jati (community)."

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