A day after announcing a tie-up with BJP, the Telugu Desam Party on Monday announced its first list of candidates for three Lok Sabha and 27 Assembly segments in Telangana.
With the time ticking by for the filing of nominations and the last date being April 9 for the phase one in the State, the focus is on Telangana which goes to the polls on April 30.
Addressing a press conference, TDP Chief N Chandrababu Naidu announced the names of the candidates chosen for these constituencies and stated that for the rest of the constituencies, the process of selection of candidates is now underway.
While Ramesh Rathod, sitting Member of Parliament from Adilabad constituency was re-nominated, K Madan Mohan Rao has been named from Zaheerabad and Bhanoth Mohan Lal has been chosen to contest from Mahbubabad (ST) constituencies.
In the list for 27 Assembly constituencies, six sitting MLAs have been re-nominated from their respective constituencies.
As per the alliance with the BJP, TDP will be contesting 9 Lok Sabha (of 17) and 72 Assembly segments (of 119) in Telangana. BJP will be contesting 8 Lok Sabha and 47 Assembly segments.
'Political tsunami'
Earlier in the day, TDP politburo member Yanamala Ramakrishnudu described that the TDP-BJP alliance would cause a political tsunami wherein other political parties would be washed out.
In a statement, he said: “The Congress and the YSR Congress are scared that our alliance will cause a political tsunami in which they are bound to get washed away. Hence they are dubbing our alliance as unholy.”
He said BJP Prime Ministerial candidate and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu have the ability to ensure a stable and corruption-free government.