The Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) was at it again. Having unilaterally declared, the other day, 12 constituencies where it would put up candidates as a partner of the grand alliance and mellowing down with the intervention of the Congress leadership, the TJS on Sunday crossed swords with the Telugu Desam.
It announced the candidature of a former Telangana Non-Gazetted Officers association leader Prabhakar Reddy from Mahabubnagar where the TDP had already fielded former MLA Erra Sekhar. The TJS also finalised a separate Telangana activist Gade Innaiah as its candidate for Warangal (East) and a former Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer G. Vidyadhar Reddy for Miryalguda. The party had on Saturday released its list for Medak, Siddipet, Dubbaka and Malkajgiri constituencies. The B-forms for all seven candidates were issued on Sunday.
TJS official spokesman Venkat Reddy said the party was considering Mr. Chinta Swamy as candidate for Wardhannapet (SC) and Mr. Satyam Goud for Amberpet.
If the TJS went ahead with entering the fray from nine constituencies, it meant exceeding its quota by one seat. The party was allotted eight seats.
TDP optimistic
Telangana Telugu Desam president L. Ramana expressed the confidence that the TJS would be persuaded to pull out from Mahabubnagar before the expiry of withdrawal of nominations on Thursday but Mr. Venkat Reddy said the TJS would mount pressure claiming the seat for itself.
The Telugu Desam, which was allotted 14 seats as an alliance partner, has named candidates for 13 constituencies so far. The Congress was also yet to announce candidates for six constituencies.
Meanwhile, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti has finished its list for all 119 Assembly constituencies by naming its BC cell president Muta Gopal as candidate for Musheerabad and Mr. Bollam Mallaiah Yadav for Kodad. The latter joined the TRS two days ago after Kodad was allotted to the Congress in the seat-sharing between Congress and three parties. As TDP candidate, Mr. Yadav had unsuccessfully contested against Telangana Congress committee president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy’s wife Padmavathi in 2014.
On the other hand, caretaker Home Minister Nayini Narasimha Reddy had made a strong bid for TRS ticket from Musheerabad for his son-in-law Srinivas Reddy. The Minister was himself a two-time MLA from the constituency.