TDP announces candidates for 25 LS seats in Andhra

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Tuesday announced its candidates for all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh for the coming general elections.

Three former Union Ministers who had resigned from the Congress to join the TDP figured in the list announced by party president and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu shortly after Monday midnight.

Kishore Chandra Deo will contest from Araku while Kotla Surya Prakash Reddy will contest from Kurnool. They joined the TDP a few weeks ago.

Pannabaka Laksmi, who switched loyalty only a day ago, was fielded from Tirupati.

Ashok Gajapati Raju, who was the Civil Aviation Minister in the NDA government, will contest again from Vijayanagaram.

The other outgoing MPs who were retained include K. Rammohan Naidu (Srikakulam), Maganti Babu (Eluru), K. Narayana (Machilipatnam), Kesineni Nani (Vijayawada), Galla Jayadev (Guntur), Rayapati Sambasiva Rao (Narsaraopet), Sriram Malyadri (Bapatla), Nimmala Kistappa (Hindupur) and N. Sivaprasad (Chittoor).

Actor and TDP leader N. Balakrishna's second son-in-law M. Sri Bharat will contest from Visakhapatnam.

As veteran actor and outgoing MP from Rajahmundru, Maganti Murali Mohan decided to retire from politics, the TDP has fielded his daughter-in-law Maganti Rupa.

In Anantapur, outgoing MP J. C. Diwakar Reddy's son Pavan Kumar Reddy was named as the TDP candidate.

Two state ministers Adinarayana Reddy (Kadapa) and Siddha Raghava Rao (Ongole) are among the candidates.