The list came on a big campaign day for the BJP in poll-bound Telangana, with PM Modi holding a massive rally in Hyderabad.
Published Nov 07, 2023 | 2:47 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 07, 2023 | 7:44 PM
Telangana BJP chief G Kishan Reddy with PM Modi, New Delhi. (Supplied)
The BJP released its fourth list of candidates for the Telangana Assembly elections on Tuesday, 7 November, as the party scheduled a high-octane poll campaign in the state which will be witnessing public meetings of over 40 prominent leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the coming days.
The list comprises 12 names, with three candidates contesting from Scheduled Caste (SC) seats, one from a Scheduked Tribe (ST) seat, and the rest falling under the general category.
With the release of the fourth list, the party has so far announced a total of 100 candidates for the 30 November elections. The remaining candidates are expected to be announced after the saffron party reaches a consensus on seat-sharing with the Pawan Kalyan-led Jana Sena.
On 4 November, Kalyan announced that discussions regarding seat allocations were concluded, with only one or two seats remaining undecided.
The actor-turned-politician is scheduled to join Prime Minister Modi at the BC Atma Gourava (Self Respect) Sabha at LB Stadium in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
This gathering would follow an announcement by the Union home minister that the party would appoint a Backwards Class (BC) candidate as the state’s chief minister if elected to power.
As many as 40 BJP leaders, including 12 Union ministers, seven MPs, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and former Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa, will be fanning out in the state in the coming days after Tuesday’s public meeting.
40 #BJP leaders, including the @narendramodi, 12 central ministers, 7 MPs, a CM @myogiadityanath and a former CM @BSYBJP, and 16 other #BJP national and state leaders will kick off their campaign from today in #Telangana. @TheSouthfirst pic.twitter.com/Tc8wBThlst
— Bhaskar Basava (@bhaskar_basava_) November 6, 2023
Out of the 100 candidates announced by the BJP so far, 37 belong to the BC community, while 37 candidates come from the forward castes, with 27 of them being Reddys.
A copy of BJP’s fourth list of candidates announced (Supplied)
Additionally, 16 candidates are from the SC category and 10 from the ST category. The list also includes 14 women candidates.
Noteworthy figures who secured tickets in the fourth list are former Zilla Parishad Chairperson of Karimnagar Tula Uma (Vemulawada), and Bomma Sriram Chakravarthy (Husnabad).
Tickets were also allocated to V Subhash Reddy (Yellareddy) and Chalamala Krishna Reddy (Munugode), who recently switched from the Congress to the BJP.
While state Congress chief Revanth Reddy will contest from Kodangal — who is also contesting from Kamareddy against Telangana Chief Minister KCR — the BJP has nominated former Congress leader Bantu Ramesh Kumar to take on Reddy. The BRS had earlier announced sitting MLA Patnam Narender Reddy as its candidate from the constituency.
In Munugode, where the BJP faced a high-voltage by-poll contest last November, Chalamalla Krishna Reddy will be the party’s candidate after Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy returned to the Congress from the BJP.
The party has fielded three Lok Sabha members — Bandi Sanjay Kumar (Karimnagar Assembly), Dharmapuri Arvind (Kortula), and Soyam Bapu Rao (Boath-ST) — and some of its top leaders, MLAs Eatala Rajender (Huzurabad and Gajwel), Raghunandan Rao (Dubbak), and T Raja Singh (Goshamahal).
Even though the party has announced candidates for 100 constituencies, there are some notable leaders whose names are absent from the list.
The big names missing from the list include state BJP chief and Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, Rajya Sabha member and party’s OBC Morcha chief K Laxman, BJP national vice-president DK Aruna, party’s Madhya Pradesh in-charge Muralidhar Rao, as well as senior leaders N Ramachander Rao, Konda Vishweswar Reddy, Vijayashanti, and AP Jithender Reddy.
