BJP releases final list of candidates for Telangana polls

Hyderabad: The BJP released the fifth and final list of candidates for Telangana Assembly elections on Friday, the last day of filing of nominations.

The fifth list comprises candidates for 14 constituencies. With this the saffron party has announced candidates for 111 constituencies, leaving eight for its ally Jana Sena Party (JSP), led by actor Pawan Kalyan.

In the final list, the BJP has named senior leader and former MLC N. Ramachander Rao as its candidate from Malkajgiri constituency in Greater Hyderabad. He will take on Mynampalli Hanumanth Rao of Congress party and Marri Rajasekhar Reddy of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

Ramachander Rao, who finished runners-up both in 2014 and 2018 in Malkajgiri, has been fielded again by the BJP.

Though JSP wanted the Srilingampally seat, BJP prevailed and fielded Ravi Kumar Yadav. The BJP has also changed its candidates in Wanaparthy and Chandrayangutta constituencies. Meanwhile, there was confusion in the party circles about candidates for two other constituencies. As per the list by the Central Election Committee of the BJP, KoyyalaEmaji was named as the candidate from Bellampalli (SC) in place of Amarajula Sridevi announced earlier. However, the state unit of the party clarified later that Sridevi would continue as the party candidate in Bellampalli. The final list also named Meramma as the candidate from Alampur (SC) in place of Rajagopal announced earlier. However, the party clarified that Rajagopal will continue as the candidate.