Telangana Lok Sabha candidates list: BJP releases list of 9 leaders; Union Minister Kishan Reddy is coming to the match from Secunderabad
Telangana Lok Sabha candidate list: Bandi Sanjay Kumar will contest from Karimnagar seat in the upcoming general elections.
Hyderabad: The BJP on Saturday presented its first list of Lok Sabha candidates. Accordingly, the notable persons on the list are Union Minister and BJP chief G. Kishan Reddy, BJP National General Secretary and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar along with current MP Arvind Dharmapuri and the veteran leader, Eatala Rajender, all representing Telangana.
G Kishan Reddy, who represents Secunderabad in the outgoing Lok Sabha, is a senior BJP leader who has risen through the ranks of the party.
Political career of Kishan Reddy
Born in 1960, Kishan Reddy started his political career as an ordinary activist in the party and emerged as an important leader for the BJP in Telangana. He has held important positions including MLA (three times), BJP state unit president and president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. He was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019 and served as the Union MoS (home). Later he was given the rank of cabinet (tourism, culture and development of the northeastern region).
Bandi Sanjay Kumar, who is known for his strong Hindutva views, represents Karimnagar in the current Lok Sabha.
Sanjay Kumar, a leader belonging to the backward classes, is credited with the party’s turnaround in Telangana when he was state president of the BJP. The party achieved notable successes during his stewardship, including in the 2020 Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) polls, leaving the then ruling BRS stunned. However, he was replaced by Kishan Reddy as state BJP president in 2023. Eatala Rajender, who was fielded from Malkajgiri by the BJP, is a popular backward class leader in the state.
Rajender, who had served as finance and health minister in the previous BRS government, joined the BJP in 2021 after resigning from the state cabinet over land grabbing allegations.
He had quit as MLA and was re-elected in the subsequent by-elections. However, Rajender lost in the 2023 Legislative Assembly polls from both the constituencies he contested, Gajwel and Huzurabad.
Arvind Dharmapuri, who has been fielded again by the BJP from Nizamabad, is known to be a firebrand leader. He had joined the BJP before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls even though his father, D. Srinivas, was a senior Congress leader in the state. A surprise choice among the candidates announced by the BJP is BB Patil, who left BRS and joined the BJP only on Friday (March 1).
BB Patil represented Zaheerabad in the current Lok Sabha as a BRS candidate and he has been fielded from the same constituency. Some media reports claimed that before his candidature was announced, BJP workers protested against the allotment of the Zaheerabad seat to Patil. Another surprise choice is Madhavi Latha Kompella, who will take on AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi in Hyderabad.
She is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and Bharatanatyam dancer. The other candidates whose names featured in the BJP’s first list released today are Konda Vishweshwar Reddy (Chevella), Bura Narsaiah Goud (Bhongir) and P Bharat (Nagarkurnool-SC).
(With input from agencies)