10 sitting MPs retain their seats, Sidda gets Ongole

Amaravati: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu retained 10 sitting member of Parliament (MPs) as candidates for the

Lok Sabha

elections, slated to be held on April 11.

Naidu has selected M Sribharath, president of Gitam group of educational institutions and younger son-in-law of actor-turned legislator Nandamuri Balakrishna, for Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha constituency.

Naidu also gave Narasaraopet ticket to six-time MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao.

Naidu had held a last round of discussions with the strategy committee on Monday night to finalise candidates for all the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies. The list was released in the early hours of Tuesday.

TDP had won 15 Lok Sabha seats in 2014 and two MPs came over from YSRC. Two senior MPs M Murali Mohan (Rajahmundry) and JC Diwakar Reddy (Ananthapur) have bowed out of public life. Murali Mohan’s daughter-in-law Maganti Rupa is the candidate in Rajahmundry while Diwakar’s son Pawan Kumar Reddy is given Anantapur LS seat.

Three TDP sitting MPs — M Srinivasa Rao (Anakapalle), Pandula Ravindra Babu (Amalapuram) and Thota Narasimham (Kakinada) — quit the party. Naidu denied tickets to both the turncoat MPs Butta Renuka (Kurnool) and SPY Reddy (Nandyal).

Although former Congress MP Harsha Kumar staked claim for Amalapuram Lok Sabha seat after joining the party two days ago, Naidu decided to go with the late Lok Sabha speaker G M C Balayogi’s son Harish Mathur.

The party also shifted Undi legislator Sivaramaraju to Narsapur Lok Sabha seat as he has a clean image among the local voters.

Sriram Malyadri, who was named as Tadikonda assembly candidate in the previous list, would seek reelection to Lok Sabha in Bapatla.

Malyadri, a former IRS officer, had expressed his inability to contest the assembly elections.

Forests and environment minister Sidda Raghava Rao will contest for Lok Sabha from Ongole while marketing minister Adinarayana Reddy will seek mandate from Kadapa.

Former Union ministers and long-time Congress associates K J Suryaprakash Reddy will contest from Kurnool and Panabaka Lakshmi from Tirupati.

Senior leader and former civil aviation minister P Ashok Gajapati Raju will contest from his family bastion Vizianagaram.