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The BJP’s first list of 52 candidates for the November 30 Telangana Assembly elections, released on Sunday, figures three Lok Sabha members, including its former state unit president Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Dharmapuri Arvind, and Soyam Bapu Rao, who have been asked to contest from the Karimnagar, Koratla, and Boath Assembly constituencies respectively.
The BJP has renominated its controversial MLA T Raja Singh from his Goshamahal seat after revoking his suspension effected last year for his alleged remarks against the Prophet.
The BJP’s state election committee head and MLA, Etela Rajender, has been fielded from Huzurabad, his existing seat, as well as Gajwel.
Rajender will take on Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) supremo K Chandrashekar Rao or KCR in his constituency Gajwel. KCR is also contesting from the Kamareddy seat.
Bandi Sanjay Kumar had lost from the Karimnagar Assembly seat in the December 2018 elections but went on to win from the Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency in May 2019.
In 2019, Dharmapuri Arvind had handed a shock defeat to then incumbent BRS MP K Kavitha, KCR’s daughter, in the Nizamabad parliamentary seat. Soyam Bapu Rao had then also pulled off a surprise win by trouncing the BRS’s sitting MP from Adilabad Godam Nagesh.
There are twelve women candidates in the BJP’s first list of nominees. They include Amarajula Sridevi from Bellampalli (SC), T Aruna Tara from Jukkal (SC), Annapurnamma Aleti from Balakonda, Boga Sravani from Jagtial, Kandula Sandhya Rani from Ramagundem, Bodiga Shobha from Choppadandi (SC), Rani Rudrama Reddy from Sircilla, Megha Rani from Chariminar, Kankanala Niveditha Reddy from Nagarjuna Sagar, Bhukya Sangeetha from Dornakal (ST), Rao Padma from Warangal West, and Chandupatla Keerthi Reddy from Bhupalpalle.
Errabelli Pradeep Rao, brother of Errabelli Dayakar Rao, BRS minister for Panchayati Raj and Rural Development, has been nominated from Warangal East. Pradeep Rao had resigned from the BRS in August last year to join the BJP.
Former Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MP from Adilabad Ramesh Rathod, who joined the BJP in 2021, has been nominated from Khanapur (ST), from where he had won in 1999.
M Raghunandan Rao has been renominated from Dubbak, Union Minister and state BJP chief, G Kishan Reddy, who is the Secunderabad MP, is not contesting the election.
Telangana BJP chief spokesperson K Krishna Sagar Rao said that Kishan Reddy is Union Minister as well as state party president, so “he is not being burdened with having to contest”.
Former BJP chief K Laxman, who is a Rajya Sabha MP, is also not contesting the election.
The BJP leaders said the party has given importance to women and BC (Backward Classes) candidates in its first list. Twenty of these 52 candidates belong to the BC communities.
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“All the women candidates are long-time party activists,” the party chief spokesperson said.
In the 2018 Assembly polls, the BJP had managed to win just one seat out of the state’s total 119 seats.
In the run-up to the upcoming polls, the BJP has been making all attempts to emerge as the main challenger to the BRS, with the main Opposition Congress now appearing to be resurgent following the party’s Karnataka triumph.
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