Hyderabad: Telugu Desam chief N. Chandrababu Naidu had loaded the party’s third list of candidates for Andhra Pradesh with fence sitters. To avoid trouble, the TD chief released the list at about 3 am on Monday.
As reported in these columns earlier, actor N. Balakrishna, brother-in-law of Mr Naidu, will contest from Hindupur. His name figured in the third list. As many as 12 out of 32 Assembly candidates in the list have migrated from the Congress and two out of the three candidates announced for Lok Sabha have recently shifted loyalties.
A. Srinivasa Rao, the sitting MLA from Bhimili had to vacate his seat for his mentor Ganta Srinivasa Rao and contest as a TD candidate from the Anakapalle Lok Sabha. Former minister Thota Narasimham will try his luck from the Kakinada LS seat.
The party, however, ditched Gollapalli Surya Rao whose candidature Mr Naidu had declared long time ago for the Amalapuram LS seat during his visit to East Godavari. Party sources said, he was being offered the Razole Assembly seat. Dr P. Ravindra Babu, who took voluntary retirement from Indian Revenue Service, has been declared the party candidate in Amalapuram.
The fence sitters who got seats included S. Vijayarama Raju (Pathapatnam), G. Srinivasa Rao (Bhimili), P. Ramesh (Yalamanchili), P. Satyanarayana (Achanta), M. Budda Prasad (Avanigadda), Meda Mallikarjun Reddy (Rajampet), G. Prabhakar Reddy (Allagadda), Silpa Chakrapani Reddy (Srisailam), Labbi Venkata Swamy (Nandikotkuru), T.G. Venkatesh (Kurnool), Erasu Prathap Reddy (Panyam) and Silpa Mohan Reddy (Nandyal).
Other candidates are G.S.S. Sivaji (Palasa), K. Lakshmi Devi (Srikakulam), B Ramana Murthy (Narasannapet), B Chiranjeevulu (Parvathipuram), K.A. Naidu (Gajapathinagaram), V. Ganesh Kumar (Visakhapatnam-south), P. Srinivas Yadav (Gajuvaka), P. Govind (Anakapalli), V. Anitha (Payakaraopet), V. Venkateswara Rao (Kakinada-city), M. Venkateswara Rao (Gopalapuram), Ms Bonda Uma (Vijayawada-central), Mr A. Sathish (Bapatla), Mr Venugopal Reddy (Guntur –west), K. Sivaprasada Rao (Sattenapalli), Venkatasubbaiah (Kodur), K.E. Prathap (Dhone), K.E. Krishna Murthy (Pathikonda), M. Veeranna (Madakasira).
