Due to the inability of the BJP leadership to agree on the list of candidates proposed by the party’s State leadership for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, it is anticipated that the first list of candidates will not be released until the first week of March.
Published Date – 21 February 2024, 04:51 PM
Hyderabad: With the BJP leadership failing to reach a consensus on the list of candidates sent by party State leadership for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, the first list of candidates is likely to be released only in the first week of March.
The BJP State leadership had announced that the first list of party candidates would be announced in the last week of January, but due to various reasons, that has not happened so far. Sources in the party say that union Home Minister Amit Shah was not satisfied with the names sent by the State leadership and that he was conducting a separate survey by his team to assess the strength and weakness of the candidates and the prospects of the party in various constituencies.
It is learnt that Amit Shah does not want to take any chance as he was making efforts to win maximum seats in Telangana. Since all the calculations during the assembly polls went wrong, Shah was taking measures to ensure that the right candidates were chosen this time. The survey team being sent by Shah will not contact the local leaders and ensure inputs are free from local influence or bias. Following this, the first list of the candidates is getting delayed.
Meanwhile, sources said the names of Secunderabad sitting MP G Kishan Reddy, Nizamabad MP Arvind Dharmapuri and Karimnagar MP Bandi Sanjay were already finalised by the party leadership, while Adilabad MP Soyam Bapu Rao’s name has been put on hold and the party was looking for a suitable candidate for the seat.
Last month, Kishan Reddy claimed that the party had finalised names of candidates for 10 seats, including sitting MPs, but now it has come to the light that the party leadership has asked him to rework on the six seats.
According to party sources, national vice-president DK Aruna was in the race for the Mahabubnagar seat, whereas former MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy was expected to be the most likely candidate from Chevella. The party is expected to do well in Nagarkurnool and Bhuvanagiri constituencies , while in Warangal, Nalgonda, Medak, Peddapalli, Khammam and Mahabubabad seats, the party needs to increase its strength further.
Malkajgiri is the most sought seat among the ticket aspirants with about 10 leaders, including former MLA Etala Rajender, Madhya Pradesh in-charge P Muralidhar Rao, former MLC N Ramachandra Rao and former MP Chada Suresh Reddy lobbying for the ticket. Though the BJP leadership is making tall claims about winning the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat, represented by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, it has not been able to find a suitable candidate to challenge Owaisi.
