Nara Lokesh gets Mangalagiri; KE Krishna Murthy, Paritala Sunitha make way for heirs

Putting an end to speculations, IT Minister Nara Lokesh is fielded from Mangalagiri Assembly seat.
An undertrial carrying the gun of one of the policemen on their way to court in Vijayawada on Thursday. This undoubtedly raises questions about the preparedness of the police department to deal with law and order issues during this crucial election time |
An undertrial carrying the gun of one of the policemen on their way to court in Vijayawada on Thursday. This undoubtedly raises questions about the preparedness of the police department to deal with law and order issues during this crucial election time |

VIJAYAWADA: TDP president and Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday night cleared the party’s candidates for 126 of 175 Assembly seats. He okayed the candidature of most of the sitting MLAs as there was not much competition. 

Putting an end to speculations, IT Minister Nara Lokesh is fielded from Mangalagiri Assembly seat. Two heirs of political bigwigs in the State will be making their debut in April 11 elections. 

Two of the ministers in Naidu’s cabinet Paritala Sunitha and KE Krishna Murthy made their way for their heirs, Paritala Sriram and KE Shyam Babu. While the other ministers representing the seats were renominated, only C Adi Narayana Reddy was not given a ticket as he will be fielded from Kadapa LS seat. Minister KS Jawahar, who represented Kovvur, will contest from Tiruvuru. 

Ministers P Narayana and Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy will contest the coming elections from Nellore City and Sarvepalli Assembly seats respectively. Chandramohan Reddy resigned as MLC to contest the Assembly elections. Majority of the tickets went to OCs (71) while BCs, said to be a ‘vote bank’ of the TDP, got 31 seats followed by 18 (SCs), 4 (STs) and two Muslim minorities in the first list.

Naidu announces mission 150+, most sitting MLAs  get renomination 

The TDP, late Thursday night, released the list of 126 names for Assembly but surprisingly after making hectic parleys did not announced candidates for a single Lok Sabha seat. Announcing the party candidates, Chandrababu Naidu said they had launched Mission 150+ (winning above 150 Assembly constituencies) for retaining power and continuing development of the State for next five years.  

Interestingly, the TDP seems to have adopted the strategy of TRS in retaining majority of the sitting MLAs and also to give seats to most of the ‘turncoats’ from the YSRC. Meanwhile, Naidu preferred to renominate the sitting MLAs from Sattenapalli, Puttaparti and other constituencies despite stiff opposition from local cadre to replace them.

Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao and former minister Palle Raghunath Reddy were renominated to Sattenapalli and Puttaparti Assembly seats. By retaining Kodela from Sattenapalli, the TDP high command declined to consider the demand of Narsaraopet MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao to field his son Ranga Babu from the seat.

Kidari Sravan Kumar, son of slain TDP MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao, will contest from Paderu ST seat.

Bapatla MP Sriram Malyadri will contest from Tadikonda constituency in the capital region of Amaravati. Meanwhile, minister Siddha Raghava Rao, who has been demanding renomination from Darsi, was not given the party ticket and he is likely to be the party’s candidate from Ongole Lok Sabha seat.

Another minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, who represents Bheemili till now, will contest from Visakhapatnam North, putting an end to confusion about his seat. There were earlier speculations that either Lokesh or former CBI JD VV Lakshminarayana would contest the seat.

YSRC seeks removal of Thakur as DGP 
YSRC MLA Alla Ramakrishna Reddy urged CEO Gopal Krishna Dwivedi to remove RP Thakur as DGP till the completion of polls in the State. He met the CEO at the IGC in Velagapudi on Thursday and submitted a representation alleging that Thakur was acting in a biased manner and sought his removal from the DGP post.

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