YSR Congress announces full list of assembly and Lok Sabha candidates in Andhra
YSRCP announced names of all the candidates for the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra PradeshY. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will re-contest from the Pulivendula
Hyderabad: The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) on Sunday morning announced a full list of candidates for the 25 Lok Sabha and 175 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh. YSRCP chief Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy will be contesting from the Pulivendula constituency in Kadapa district. Adhala Prabhakar Reddy, who joined YSRCP from the ruling Teluugu Desam Party (TDP), will be fighting from Nellore (rural) seat.
Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, a former Congressman, will be contesting from YSRCP’s Ongole Lok Sabha seat. The ruling party wanted him to join TDP, but he decided to go ahead with YSRCP. Srinivasulu Reddy was close to former AP chief minister (and Jagan Mohan Reddy’s father) Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who died in a copter crash in 2008.
In the last month, leaders from the both the TDP and the YSRCP have been defecting between both parties. Prabhakar Reddy shocked TDP with his departure while Kurnool MP Butta Renuka re-joined the YSRCP in March. Renuka had won her seat on a YSRCP ticket in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and later defected to the TDP.
The TDP has so far released the names of 126 candidates for assembly elections. The full list is yet to come.
“We have expected defections from our party as those who were denied tickets won’t be happy. Only Adhala Prabhakar’s departure is surprising to us," said a TDP leader, who was unwilling to be quoted.
In the upcoming polls, AP chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is expected to face a tough fight from the Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is in the race to become the next chief minister. Reddy also has the advantage of having anti-incumbency on his side. Unlike in 2014 when it had a pre-poll alliance with the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), the TDP will also contest the Lok Sabha polls 2019 on its own.
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