The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Sunday announced the names of two more party candidates for the Malakpet and Zaheerabad Assembly constituencies for the upcoming state elections.
The decision was taken by senior TRS leaders after a meeting of all candidates with caretaker Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday. While Chava Satish Kumar has been picked for Malakpet, K Manik Rao will contest from Zaheerabad on the TRS flag.
With this, the TRS has announced 107 candidates for the 119-member Assembly. The remaining 12 candidates are also expected to be named soon.
On September 6, KCR and his cabinet passed a resolution to dissolve the Assembly which came into effect after Governor ESL Narasimhan approved it. On the same day, almost all sitting legislators of the TRS were given a ticket to contest the polls yet again.
Only two MLAs were not given a ticket again — the Chennur seat in Mancherial district and Andole in Sangareddy district. "In five places, some discussion is still needed, so the candidates have not been announced yet. This includes Medchal, Malkajgiri, Choppadandi, Vikarabad and Warangal East," KCR had said.
KCR himself has decided to recontest from his present seat at Gajwel, while his son and IT Minister KT Rama Rao will contest again from Sircilla constituency. Irrigation Minister Harish Rao retained his nomination for the seat from Siddipet.
While the TRS won 63 seats out of the total 119 in the legislative assembly during the 2014 elections, it presently has close to 90 MLAs in its party following a series of defections. In what could be seen as a gamble, many defectors have managed to retain their ticket and will contest the same seats, this time under the TRS banner.
Meanwhile, a team from the Central Election Commission is all set to visit Telangana on Monday and review poll preparedness of the state for the elections to be held on December 7.