AP Elections 2024: No seats for seniors in Andhra BJP

The BJP released its list of candidates for all the 10 assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh. According to a statement from party’s national general secretary Arun Singh, former MP, two former ministers, national secretary and former MLAs have found a place in the list. 

The saffron party’s candidates for the 10 assembly constituencies in the ensuing polls are former state ministers Kamineni Srinivas Rao (Kaikaluru) and C Adinarayana Reddy (Jammalamadugu), former MLA P Vishnu Kumar Raju (Visakhapatnam-East), educationist N Eshwar Rao (Etcherla), Pangi Raja Rao (Araku Valley-ST), M Shiva Krishnam Raju (Anaparthy), Bojja Roshanna (Badvel-SC), Y. Satya Kumar (Dharmavaram), YS Chowdary, popularly known as Sujana Chowdary (Vijayawada-West) and Dr PV Parthasarthy (Adoni).

However, the BJP’s list of candidates for the assembly elections has left many seniors disappointed. Former MLCs PNV Madhav, SVishnuvardhan Reddy, Swami Paripoornananda Swamy along with former state president Somu Veerraju were denied tickets by the party leadership. The candidates list has drawn ire from the BJP's old guard. The disgruntled leaders have claimed that candidates who are closer to the TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu were given tickets by the party. 

It is alleged that the state BJP unit chief D Purandeswari has favoured those candidates for the tickets who are acceptable to Naidu. Questions were raised over the candidature of Bojja Roshanna who is contesting from Badvel-SC seat. The leaders are disappointed that the party has favoured Roshanna over them who joined the saffron party a day before the announcement of party candidates for the ensuing assembly elections. 

Among the 10 candidates, six are turncoats who have joined the BJP just before the elections. Sujana Chowdary and C Adinarayana Reddy remained with the TDP until the 2019 elections and switched their loyalties to the BJP as their party was badly defeated by the YSRCP in the elections. 

Similarly, Kamineni Srinivas Rao jumped ship when he was certain that the TDP-BJP combine would win the upcoming polls. It is said Y. Satya Kumar is also not an active party leader. He was the personal secretary of former vice president Venkaiah Naidu. 

Also Read: TDP Ticket War: Nallamilli’s Supporters Wreak Havoc in Anaparthi Constituency