Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Monday announced the candidates for all but four seats for the upcoming assembly elections scheduled later this year, attempting to gather early momentum for the crucial polls. Hyderabad, Aug 21 (ANI): BRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao announcing the BRS list of candidates for the forthcoming Assembly polls, at a media conference at Telangana Bhavan in Hyderabad on Monday. (ANI Photo) (Mohammad Aleemuddin)

KCR, as Rao is popularly known as, will contest from two seats — Kamareddy and his present constituency Gajwel. The party announced candidates for 115 of the 119 constituencies, dropping only eight lawmakers.

“Today being the most auspicious day — Sravana Panchami, I have decided to release the list so that the candidates would go into the campaign mode in the right earnest,” KCR said at a brief press conference at Telangana Bhavan.

Of the 115 candidates, 29 are from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities, 24 OBCs and three from minorities. Overall, seven women find a place on the list.

The BRS chief also said that his party would release its election manifesto in Warangal on October 16. No other party has announced its candidate list for the state elections, the schedule for which is yet to be announced by the Election Commission.

KCR’s son and state’s information technology minister KT Rama Rao (popularly known as KTR) will contest from Sircilla. His nephew T harish Rao has been fielded from Siddipet. Deputy speaker of assembly, T Padma Rao, will fight from Secunderabad.

KCR also asserted that the BRS’s “friendly relationship” with Hyderabad member of Parliament (MP) Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) will continue. “Both parties will definitely capture all 29 assembly seats in Hyderabad and erstwhile combined Ranga Reddy districts,” he added.

The chief minister further said that candidates for the remaining four constituencies — Nampally, Narsapur, Goshamahal and Jangaon — will be announced very shortly.

“We are going to win 95-105 assembly seats in the state in the coming assembly elections, apart from all the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 general elections,” KCR said. “I wish all the candidates will achieve resounding victory in the coming elections and hold the BRS flag high.”

The BRS dropped eight sitting legislators from the list -- Gampa Goverdhan (Kamareddy), Rathod Bapu Rao (Boath), Rekha Nayak (Khanapur), Ramulu Nayak (Wyra), Bethi Subhash Reddy (Uppal), Dr T Rajaiah (Station Ghanpur), Atram Sakku from (Asifabad) and Ch Ramesh from Vemulawada.

“In Vemulawada, we had to drop sitting MLA Ch Ramesh because of a legal controversy over his German citizenship and replace him with Chalmeda Lakshmi Narasimha Rao,” KCR said. “In other constituencies, we were forced to drop the sitting MLAs for various reasons, including non-performance. They have not changed their style of functioning despite repeated warnings.”

KCR asked other ticket aspirants not to get disappointed or disheartened. “BRS is an ocean and everybody would get some opportunity or the other. If not the MLA seat, they can become MLCs, MPs or zilla parishad chairpersons, besides other political posts,” he added.

Besides Vemulawada, the newly selected candidates replacing the sitting MLAs are — Anil Jadhav (Boath-ST), Bhukya Johnson Rathod Naik (Khanapur-ST), Banothu Madan Lal (Wyra-ST), Bandaru Lakshma Reddy (Uppal), Kadiyam Srihari (Station Ghanpur-SC) and Kova Lakshmi (Asifabad-ST).

In Korutla, sitting MLA Kalvakuntla Vidyasagar Rao was replaced by his son Dr K Sanjay Kumar on his request. Similarly, in Secunderabad Cantonment constituency, the BRS ticket was given to L Nanditha, daughter of MLA G Sayanna, who passed away recently.

In 2018, the BRS, then known as Telangana Rashtra Samithi, won 88 of the 119 seats, forming the government for the second time. The Congress won 19 seats and the AIMIM seven. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) won two and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed to win only one seat.

After the elections, 12 MLAs from the Congress, two from the TDP and two independents joined the TRS, taking its tally to 104 seats. The Congress’sstrength subsequently fell to five with the defeat of two MLAs in byelections, while the BJP improved its tally to three by winning two bypolls.

The state Congress unit said the BRS move clearly showed that KCR had “accepted defeat “ well in advance.

“He [KCR] is not confident of winning his own seat in Gajwel, and hence, decided to try his luck from Kamareddy as well,” state Congress chief A Revanth Reddy said.

He pointed out that only seven women made it to the list of 115 BRS candidates for the assembly elections. “What does KCR’s daughter Kavitha, who protested for reservations to women in elected bodies, do now? She should question her father,” Reddy added.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary Bandi Sanjay alleged that MLAs retained by the BRS to contest the upcoming polls were “corrupt” and “land grabbers”. “It is imminent that they are going to lose the elections,” he added.

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