TDP names 27 candidates for Andhra assembly polls

Hyderabad, March 25 (IANS) A day after finalising seat sharing agreement with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Wednesday released the first list of 27 candidates for the next month's assembly elections.

The main opposition party has retained majority of the sitting legislators or those who lost in 2004 elections.

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Former ministers Ashok Gajapati Raju, Kadiam Srihari, T. Srinivas Yadav, K. Vijayarama Rao, Uma Madhava Reddy and Ayanna Patrudu, and former speaker Pratibha Bharati were among the prominent candidates included in the first list.

Senior party leader Y. Ramakrishnudu released the list at party president N. Chandrababu Naidu's residence. The party, however, has not announced any names for the Lok Sabha seats.

TDP is heading a four-member alliance of opposition parties. The TRS, Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India-Marxists (CPI-M) are the other partners in the alliance.

Under the agreement, the TRS will contests 48 assembly and nine Lok Sabha seats in the Telangana region. Talks between TDP and the Left parties are still on, but the CPI-M Wednesday unilaterally announced a list of 20 assembly candidates, saying there could be some changes once the agreement is reached.

Meanwhile, TRS released its second list of candidate for the assembly elections. The list has 11 names including E. Rajender, who was the party leader in the previous assembly.

The party Wednesday morning released the first list of 15 candidates for the assembly polls. There were no major surprises as the party re-nominated sitting legislators and even those who lost last year's by-elections.

Simultaneous polls to the 294-member state assembly and 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state are scheduled April 16 and 23.

In the 2004 elections, TDP had bagged 45 assembly and five Lok Sabha seats while the TRS had won 26 assembly and five Lok Sabha seats.