Tollywood actor Nandamuri Balakrishna has been chosen by the Telugu Desam Party to contest from the Hindupur Assembly constituency.
Son of late NT Rama Rao and brother-in-law of TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu, Balakrishna, makes his electoral debut and will be contesting from Hindupur.
In the third list released by the TDP at about 3 am on Monday, a list of three candidates for the Lok Sabha and 32 members for the Assembly constituencies was cleared. This includes Avanthi Srinivasa Rao from Anakapalli, Thota Narsimham from Kakinada and P. Ravindra Babu from Amalapuram Lok Sabha constituencies.
Earlier, TDP had cleared the names of Jaydev Galla from the Guntur Lok Sabha seat and his mother Galla Aruna Kumari from Chandragiri assembly segment. In the second list, the TDP had decided to field senior Congress leader and former minister JC Diwakar Reddy from Anantapur Lok Sabha segment, senior Congress leader Rayapati Sambasiva Rao from Narsaraopet segment and Adala Parabhakar Reddy from Nellore. All of them had recently moved over to the TDP.
Meanwhile, the TDP and BJP were engaged in a series of meetings to finalise candidates for the Seemandhra region. There were last minute changes with some of the seats, which were allocated to BJP now given back to TDP and vice versa.
In the third list released earlier today, the names of some of the senior Congress leaders who had moved over to the TDP figured among the nominees. These include industrialist T G Venkatesh from Kurnool and Erasu Prathap Reddy from Panyam.