BJP announces six candidates for Lok Sabha Polls in Telangana

The party had already announced candidates for nine out of the total 17 seats and two more seats have to be announced

Hyderabad: The BJP on Wednesday released the second list of candidates for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls for six seats in Telangana. The party had already announced candidates for nine out of the total of 17 seats with two more seats yet to be announced.

The party fielded DK Aruna from Mahabubnagar, M Raghunandan Rao from Medak, Azmeera Sitaram Naik from Mahabubabad, Shanampudi Saidireddy from Nalgonda, G Nagesh from Adilabad and Gomasa Srinivas from Peddapalli. The party has kept the announcement of candidates for Warangal and Khammam seats pending.

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As expected, Adilabad sitting MP Soyam Bapu Rao was replaced by former BRS MP Nagesh. Surprisingly the Khammam seat also has been kept on hold though it is learnt that the party leadership has cleared the name of former MLA Jalagam Venkat Rao. Sources said the Warangal seat was kept on hold as the party was negotiating with former BRS MLA Aroori Ramesh. Former DGP T Krishna Prasad is also in the race for the Warangal ticket.

Senior BJP leader and former MP AP Jitender Reddy, who was in the race for the Mahabubabad seat, failed to secure the seat. However, it is learnt that the party leadership has assured him of a bigger role in the party.

Meanwhile, the allotment of the Adilabad seat to Nagesh has not gone well with the local leaders, especially those belonging to the Lambada community. The Lambada community leaders have urged the party high command to reconsider its decision. Soyam Bapu Rao had already announced that he would be contesting from the Adilabad seat whether the party gives him a ticket or not. He had even warned that he would work against the BJP candidate if he was not given the ticket. Bapu Rao has support from the adivasi communities as he is spearheading the movement to remove Lambadas from the list of Scheduled Tribes.

Similarly, the national leadership allotting a ticket to former BRS MP BB Patil from Zaheerabad has not gone down well with local leaders. Hundreds of BJP leaders from Zaheerabad constituency recently staged a protest at the BJP State headquarters against the party leadership’s decision to allot a ticket to Patil. A majority of them are unhappy with the decision and even decided to stay away from campaigning.

Interestingly, except the three sitting seats – Secunderabad, Karimnagar and Nizamabad – rest of the seats have been allotted to leaders who joined BJP from rival parties. The party leadership’s decision to allot tickets to turncoats has not gone well with State leaders and could affect the prospects of the candidates in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, a BJP leader said.