VIJAYAWADA: BJP State president Kanna Lakshminarayana filed his nomination on Friday from Narsaraopet for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The saffron party Assembly and Parliament contestants, whose names have not figured in the first list of the candidates announced by the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC), also filed the nominations at various places.
MP candidates including Pydikondala Manikyala Rao (Narsapuram), Kilaru Dileep (Vijayawada), Jayaprakash Narayana Valluru (Guntur), P Sanyasi Raju (Visakhapatnam), and MLA candidates from Guntur and other districts have filed the nomination in the day. 

“We have released a list of 123 candidates for Assembly elections a few days ago. We have submitted the names for the remaining segments to the CEC on Thursday, which will be announced in a day or two. Meanwhile, we have informed all the contesting candidates from all 175 Assembly and 25 Parliament segments, even those whose names haven’t been announced, so that they would complete their nomination process,” BJP national spokesperson and MP GVL Narasimha Rao explained.

He further noted that the party has given importance to all the communities while finalising the contestants. “Unlike the major regional parties in AP, which have given importance to only a few particular castes, we have representation of all communities,” GVL noted.

Speaking to TNIE, another party leader said that the second list of candidates would be made public on the weekend. “B-forms for the selected candidates will also be given in a day or two as Monday is the last day for filing nominations,” the leader observed. Meanwhile, the BJP will release its election manifesto for AP on March 26. The manifesto unveiling programme will be graced by a Union minister, the BJP leaders said.