On Sunday, 17 March, Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSRC released its full list of candidates for the 25 Lok Sabha seats and 175 Assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh. Jagan’s Lok Sabha candidate list features several new entrants into the party, including those who joined less than a day before the list was announced.
All constituencies in the southern state go to polls in the first phase of the general election on 11 April, when Andhra will vote to elect its Lok Sabha MPs as well as its Legislative Assembly.
Party’s Newest Entrants Get Rewarded, Sitting MPs Sidelined
- Only two sitting YSRC MPs have been re-nominated while new candidates have been announced by the party for the remaining 23 seats.
- Sitting MPs such as Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy from Nellore and YV Subba Reddy from Ongole have failed to get Lok Sabha tickets this time around.
- Vara Prasad, who was Tirupati MP, has been fielded for the reserved (SC) Assembly seat in Gudur.
- Modugula Venugopal Reddy, the TDP MLA who recently jumped ship and joined Jagan’s YSRC, has won the ticket to contest from the Guntur Lok Sabha seat.
- Former MP Vanga Geetha, who joined the YSRC as late as Saturday evening, 16 March, less than a day before the candidate list was announced, will be contesting from Kakinada.
- MLC Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, who too joined the party on Saturday evening, will be fighting for the Ongole Lok Sabha seat.
- Adala Prabhakar Reddy, another YSRC newcomer, received the Lok Sabha ticket from Nellore within a day of joining the party. He displaces sitting YSRC MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy.
Embarrassingly enough for the TDP, Adala Prabhakar Reddy had been named the TDP candidate for the Nellore Rural Assembly seat on Thursday, but he walked out of Chandrababu Naidu’s fold just two days later. - Former minister B Durga Prasad, who defected from the TDP, has been chosen as the candidate for Tirupati (SC) seat.
YSRC’s Full List of Lok Sabha Candidates in Andhra Pradesh
YSRC chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy released the list at their family estate in Idupulapaya in Kadapa district. Of the 25 Lok Sabha candidates, seven were from the backward classes, four from the Scheduled Castes and one from Scheduled Tribes, Jagan said. Among the 175 Assembly candidates, 41 belonged to the backward classes and five to the Muslim community, he added.
(With PTI inputs)
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