Jagan bats for ballot papers
He questioned why ballot papers were not being brought back though it was still being used in the majority of countries.
The YSRCP has allotted 50 per cent of the seats to candidates from SC, ST, OBC and minority communities in its list of 175 Assembly and 24 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh.
The party on Saturday withheld the candidate only for Anakapalle MP seat as it announced the list of party candidates at Idupulapaya in Kadapa district, the ancestral home of party supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
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In the past two and a half months, the YSRCP chief had replaced almost 50 sitting MLAs and MPs and brought in new constituency coordinators in the name of social engineering and even triggered an exodus from the party. Barring a few, most of the coordinators were named as party candidates from their respective constituencies.
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YS Avinash, whose name cropped up in the murder of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s uncle YS Vivekananda Reddy, was renominated from Kadapa. So was PV Midhun Reddy from Rajampet while Vijayasai Reddy, who was earlier in the Rajya Sabha, will fight elections from Nellore LS seat.
Kesineni Srinivas, who joined the party from the TDP, will contest from Vijayawada. Dropping sitting MP G Madhav from Hindupur, the YSRCP nominated Joladarshi Shanta, from BJP MP of Bellary in Karnataka.
Among the MLAs, party president and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will contest from his seat Pulivendula while KJR Bharath, a BC candidate will take on N Chandrababu Naidu at Kuppam.
Another BC candidate M Lavanya will take on Nara Lokesh in Mangalgiri which boasts of a large population from weaver community. The ministers have been retained though a few have been shifted to other constituencies.
The YSRCP’s list has BC candidates in 59 seats in a bid to thwart the TDP, which had enjoyed the support of the community in the past. There are 33 candidates from SC community, 8 from ST and 7 minorities. In total 24 women got either MP or MLA tickets.
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