TRS fields candidate against friendly Owaisi

Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, March 22

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has released the list of 17 names for the April 11 Lok Sabha elections, putting up a candidate on all seats including Hyderabad Parliamentary Constituency that the party has so far been projecting as one to be left for friendly party All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asadudin Owaisi.

The list was released by Chief Minister and party president K Chandrashekhar Rao on Thursday evening re-nominating seven sitting MPs and granting ticket six totally new faces. The list suggests a blend of fresh faces and experienced hands. Those re-nominated include the Chief Minister’s daughter K Kavitha who will contest from Nizamabad, the seat that she currently represents.

Important leaders who have been dropped include the TRS floor leader in the outgoing Lok Sabha AP Jithender Reddy (Mahabubnagar). Others dropped from the list include Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy (Khammam), who has been replaced by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) politbureau member Nama Nageshwar Rao, who recently joined the TRS.

New faces in the list are businessman Vemireddy Narasimha Reddy (Nalgonda), Gaddam Ranjit Reddy (Chevella), Talasani Sai Kiran Yadav (Secunderabad), Marri Rajshekhar Reddy (Malkajigiri) and Puste Srikant (Hyderabad).

The sitting MPs who have been given TRS tickets again are K Kavitha (Nizamabad), Boinpally Vinod Kumar (Karimnagar), Godem Nagesh (Adilabad), BB Patil (Zaheerabad), Kotha Prabhakar Reddy (Medak), Pasunuri Dayakar (Warangal) and Boora Narasaiah Goud (Bhongir).

Borlakunta Venkatesh Nethakani who joined TRS from Congress recently is also in the list. He had contested against Balka Suman from Chennur Assembly constituency and lost in the recent Assembly elections.

Besides the CM daughter Kavitha, the TRS has given ticket to Maloth Kavitha from Mahbubabad constituency. She is the daughter of TRS MLA Redya Naik and second woman in the TRS list.