With only one day left for the filing of nomination for the first phase of elections in Andhra Pradesh, all the major political parties have started giving finishing touches to their lists of candidates throwing some big surprises.
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti has announced its candidates for all its nine Lok Sabha constituencies. TRS president K Chandrasekhara Rao has moved from Karimnagar to Mahbubnagar and fielded the Telugu film actress and secretary general of the party Vijay Shanti from Medak.
The choice of Mahbubnagar by KCR for himself has come as a surprise because the constituency has never been a stronghold of the party. Many in his own party believe that he has taken a calculated risk by entering the fray from Mahbubnagar.
Medak, where Vijay Shanti is making her debut in electoral politics is a historic constituency from where Indira Gandhi was elected in 1980, in 2004 the seat was won by A Narendra of the TRS.
The party has fielded another sitting MP, Vinod Kumar from Karimnagar, which has been the TRS stronghold as Kumar's constituency Hanmakonda has been scrapped. Chandrashekar Rao had won the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency thrice during last five years. After the general elections in 2004 he resigned twice and was re-elected in the by-elections.
In a surprise move TRS fielded the former Telugu Desam Party legislator Syed Yusuf Ali from Zaheerabad Lok Sabha constituency, even before he formally resigned from his earlier party. KCR also fielded a political novice, businessman Ganesh Gupta from Nizamabad triggering the resignation of one of senior party leaders and former MP, G Ganga Reddy.
The other four candidates include S Venkat Reddy from Secunderabad, G Balaraju from Nagarkurnool, Doma Srinivas Rao from Peddapalle and R Prameshwar from Warangal. The distribution of Lok Sabha and assembly tickets by KCR has been marred by the allegation of him receiving crores of rupees from the aspirants.
Meanwhile the Praja Rajyam party released the second list of its candidates on Saturday. The prominent candidates include former TDP MP Bhuma Nagi Reddy from his home constituency of Nandyal, former TDP Minister Khaleel Basha from Kadapa, Thota Chandrasekhara from Guntur, Syed Saheb from Narsaraopeta, Mohammed Mansoor from Anantapur and Shravan Kumar from Secunderabad. So far the party has fielded four Muslim candidates for Lok Sabha highest ever by any party.
The party has also announced the names of 16 more candidates for the assembly elections. With this the PRP has announced 18 candidates for the Lok Sabha and 116 for the state assembly.
Meanwhile the ruling Congress has also announced the last list of its candidates for the four remaining assembly seats and changed the candidates in three constituencies. The candidates include Yunus Sultan from Khammam, T Gangadhar from Miryalaguda, state minister Jakkampudi Ramomohan Rao's wife Vijay Lakshmi from Rajahmundry rural and former TDP minister Mutyam Reddy from Dubbak in Medak district.
The major change made in the candidates including re-nomination of deputy speaker Kutulahamma from Gangadhara Nellore constituency in Chittoor after she cried foul over denial of ticket. Earlier the ticket was given to Dorai Swamy. She was reportedly brought back in to the list after she threatened to commit suicide.
