TDP finalises 15 Parl, 126 Assembly tickets

Amaravati: Racing against time, the Telugu Desam Party on Thursday finalised a list of about 126 names for the Assembly and nearly 15 names for the Lok Sabha seats, elections for which would be held on April 11. The party has retained most of the sitting MLAs.

Unlike in the past, the party this time had to face several problems in selecting the candidates. Apart from addressing the issues of dissent in the party, it also had to keep in view the candidates who are likely to be fielded by the YSRCP.

Since the fight is going to be mainly between the TDP and YSRCP, the party leadership had taken into consideration various survey reports, the performance index of the sitting MLAs, caste equations, and the response TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu got from interactive voice response system from the people in the constituency.

The party leadership during its marathon exercise since morning had to make several last-minute changes to ensure that the winning horses get the tickets. Even finalising the name of Speaker of the AP Assembly Kodela Siva Prasada Rao caused some trouble but finally the party decided to field him from Sattenapalli Assembly constituency.

At one stage speculation was rife that the party senior leader Rayapati Sambasiva Rao would not get the Narsaraopet Lok Sabha seat. Rao, who expressed his unhappiness, even is said to have got in touch with YSRCP leaders. Meanwhile, TDP leaders including Nara Lokesh and Sujana Chowdary spoke to him and told him not to take any hasty decision. In the meantime, his name was cleared by the high command and Lokesh informed him over phone.

The suspense over the assembly seat for Ganta Srinivas Rao continues. Ganta had never contested for second consecutive term from any constituency. His name is being considered for either Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha seat. At one point of time, it was said that he may contest from Anakapalle Lok Sabha constituency but the party is keen to field the son of former speaker Balayogi. The party high command wanted to shift minister Jawahar from Kovur in West Godavari to Tiruvuru in Krishna district and give Kovur ticket to Anita who had earlier represented Payakaraopet in Visakhapatnam district.

However, a final decision is yet to be taken about this seat. The party also decided to drop Peethala Sujatha sitting MLA from Chintalapudi. There are allegations of corruption against her. Another seat where the party is yet to take a final decision is Narsipatnam in Visakha district. At present, minister Ayyana Partrudu is representing from the constituency. He wants that his son should be given the ticket for this seat but Naidu appears to be in favour of asking the minister to contest again from here.

Raptadu constituency in Anantapur district is another key constituency which is represented by Paritala Sunitha. Sunitha wants that her son should be given the ticket from here and has volunteered to stay away from the contest. But the chief minister wants that Sunitha should seek re-election from here. However, party leadership said that by Friday the party high command would resolve the contentious issues.

While finalising the names of the candidates, the party also took a major decision to do away with the system of constituency in charges. So far, the practice was that the defeated candidate was appointed as constituency in charge.