Hyderabad, March 17 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy will contest next month's Lok Sabha elections as a Congress party candidate from Kadapa constituency and the party has decided to field a majority of the sitting members of parliament.
The Congress Central Election Committee, which finalised candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats Monday night in New Delhi, has decided to once again field all five central ministers from the state.
Though a formal announcement of the candidates is likely in two days, Congress sources said the party decided to retain majority of the sitting MPs and rejected the demands of Rajya Sabha members like T. Subbirami Reddy and V. Hanumantha Rao for Lok Sabha tickets.
Jaganmohan Reddy, an industrialist, will contest from Kadapa constituency in his native Kadapa district. His uncle and sitting MP Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy has decided not to contest to facilitate Jaganmohan's entry into electoral politics.
The chief minister's son had long been eyeing this constituency. Vivekananda Reddy had decided to quit to make way for him in 2005 but the party's leadership had shot down the proposal.
Senior Congress leader and former union minister G. Venkataswamy has decided not to seek re-election, making way for his industrialist son G. Vivekanand from Pedapalli constituency.
Though Y.S.R. Reddy has this time succeeded in getting a party ticket for his son, he did not have the final say in the selection of all candidates as evident from the re-nomination of some of the sitting MPs.
All India Congress Committee secretary Madhu Yaskhi Goud, who has serious differences with the chief minister, will again contest from Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat.
Since some of the Lok Sabha constituencies have become non-existent due to delimitation, the party has fielded sitting MPs from newly-created constituencies.
Senior leader and central minister S. Jaipal Reddy will contest from Chevella constituency in Greater Hyderabad, as the Miryalguda seat, which he won in 2004 elections, has been scrapped.
Daggubati Purandeswari, a central minister and daughter of Telugu Desam Party (TDP)founder N.T. Rama Rao, will contest from Visakhapatnam as her Bapatla seat has been reserved in the delimitation process. Former chief minister and sitting MP from Visakhapatnam N. Janardhan Reddy has been nominated to the Rajya Sabha.
Another central minister Panabaka Lakshmi, whose constituency Nellore has been dereserved, will be in the fray from Bapatla.
Sources said union ministers Renuka Chowdhary and M.M. Pallam Raju have been re-nominated from Khammam and Kakinada respectively.
Vundavalli Arunkumar has been retained from Rajahmundry, G.V. Harsha Kumar from Amlapuram and L. Rajagopal from Vijayawada. Anjan Kumar Yadav will again contest from Secunderabad constituency and Nizamuddin from Hindupur. Mohammed Fareeduddin, a minister in the state cabinet, has been cleared for the newly-created Zaheerabad constituency.
Manda Jagannadham, who was expelled from TDP for voting in favour of Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in parliament last year, has been fielded from Nagarkurnool.
A. Narendra, the expelled MP from Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), is likely to be rewarded with a ticket from Medak. G. Sukhender Reddy, who quit TDP two days ago to join Congress, may be the candidate from Nalgonda.
Congress had won 29 seats in 2004 elections while its then allies TRS bagged five, Communist Party of India (CPI) one and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) one. TDP had won five seats and Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) one.
The ruling party will announce candidates for assembly elections after March 23.
The state is going for simultaneous polls to the state assembly and Lok Sabha April 16 and 23.
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