BJP likely to announce candidates for ten Lok Sabha seats before poll notification

The mission for the Telangana unit of the BJP is to win at least 10 out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana

Hyderabad: The BJP is likely to announce the names of candidates for 10 Lok Sabha constituencies before the issuance of election schedule.

According to sources, since the BJP leadership has decided to renominate party sitting MPs from Secunderabad, Nizamabad and Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituencies, party State president G Kishan Reddy has reportedly sent names of candidates for seven more constituencies along with them for approval.

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The Election Commission is likely to issue poll notification in the last week of February, hence the BJP leadership has been making efforts to finalise candidates for at least 10 seats, so that it could be announced before the notification is issued.

Sources say the State leadership has sent two names each from Chevela, Bhongir, Medak, Mahabubnagar and Hyderabad Parliament seats to the party high command for approval. A large number of aspirants are in the race for Malkajgiri and Zaheerabad tickets, hence these two seats have been kept pending, sources said, adding that former MLA Eatala Rajender and BJP Madhya Pradesh in-charge P Muralidhar Rao were keen to contest from the Malkajgiri seat.

However, it is learnt that party leadership wants Rajender to contest from Medak, for which he is reportedly not ready. Former Dubbaka MLA M Raghunandan Rao has expressed his desire to contest from the Medak seat and has been lobbying for it for quite some time.

Adilabad sitting MP Soyam Bapu Rao’s candidature has been put on hold and the party has reportedly decided to give tickets to a new person. Sources say a majority of the local leaders, including newly elected MLAs are opposing the candidature of Bapu Rao and have already informed the party high command about their decision. Following this the party is looking for a suitable candidate who could win the seat easily.

In Khammam, Nalgonda, Mahabubabad seats, the BJP is weak and the party is looking for strong candidates from other parties for these seats. The party is in the process of selecting candidates for the Scheduled Castes reserved seats of Nagarkurnool, Peddapalli and Warangal. The party is planning to give five seats out of the 17 to Backward Castes, including Munnuru Kapu, Goud, Mudiraj and Yadav communities, The party is also considering allotting three seats to the Reddy community, the sources said.

The mission for the Telangana unit of the BJP is to win at least 10 out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana. The BJP won four Lok Sabha seats in the last elections and with the party managing to win 8 seats in the recently concluded Assembly elections and receiving 14 percent of votes, it is expecting to win at least 8-10 Lok Sabha seats by taking the voting percentage to 30 percent.