The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) on Wednesday released their full list of 17 candidates to contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in April. The party has also announced two names for the Legislative Council positions out of the 4 seats won by the party in the recently concluded legislative council elections in the state.
The TRS has renominated 7 out of their 10 sitting MPs to contest the polls. The MPs who will seek re-election are Boinipally Vinod Kumar for Karimnagar, G Nagesh for Adilabad, Kalvakuntala Kavitha for Nizamabad, Kotha Prabhakar Reddy for Medak, BB Patil for Zaheerabad, Boora Narsaiah Goud for Bhongir and Pasunuri Dayakar for Warangal.
At the Pedapalli Lok Sabha constituency, the former MP Balka Suman has been replaced by Venkatesh Nethakani. For the Nalgonda seat, the party has fielded Vemireddy Narasimha Reddy.
The only other woman LS candidate for the TRS other than the chief minister's daughter is Maloth Kavitha, who defected from Congress to TRS after her loss in the Telangana Assembly polls in 2018. M Kavitha will be contesting from Mahabubabad, she has replaced A Sitaram Naik, the former TRS MP.
For the Secunderabad Lok Sabha constituency, the party has fielded Talasani Saikiran Yadav who will contest for TRS. He is the son of the present Animal Husbandry Minister Talasani Srinivas
The Malkajgiri LS seat was previously held by Malla Reddy who was then with the TDP. He had, however, defected to the TRS in 2018. The party has fielded Marri Rajasekhar Reddy for this seat who will be going up against Revanth Reddy of the Congress and Ramachander Rao of the BJP.
After the departure of Konda Vishweshwar Reddy who was the Chevella MP of the TRS to Congress, the party has fielded Dr Ranjith Reddy for this LS seat.
Interestingly, the TRS has also fielded a candidate for the Hyderabad LS constituency, by fielding Puste Srikanth, an entrepreneur who had recently joined the party. He will be taking of Assudddin Owaisi the sitting MP from Hyderabad and chief of the AIMIM. The TRS had initially decided not to field any candidate against their ally the MIM.
AP Jitender Reddy, the sitting MP from Mahabubnagar LS constituency was denied a seat. The party has instead fielded Manne Srinivas Reddy. For the Nagarkurnool LS seat, the party has fielded P.Ramulu the former Mahabubnagar MLA.
For Khammam, the party has fielded Nama Nageshwar Rao, who had defected from the TDP and joined the TRS just hours before the list was released on Wednesday.
The TRS has also announced their nominees for the two Legislative Council seats out of four seats that are going to be vacated shortly. The party has nominated present Nalgonda MP Gutha Sukhender Reddy and Kukatpally TRS leader Kurmaiah Gari Naveen Rao as MLCs.
The political contest in Telangana is a two-way fight between the TRS and the Congress. In the Legislative Assembly elections held in December last year, the ruling TRS swept the polls, bagging 88 out of the 119-seat House.
The polls are also crucial for KCR's Prime Ministerial ambitions as he plans to forge a Federal Front; a consortium of regional parties at the Centre.
Lok Sabha elections in Telangana are scheduled in a single phase on April 11. In the 2014 polls, the TRS had won 11 seats.