BJP announces 4th list of candidates for Telangana polls

Hyderabad, Nov 7: The BJP on Tuesday announced its fourth list of candidates for the November 30 Telangana Assembly polls.

The party's Central Election Committee announced the list of candidates for 12 constituencies.

But the names of state BJP president and Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy, MP K. Laxman, actor-turned-politician Vijayashanti were missing.

With this, the party has so far announced candidates for 100 out of 119 Assembly seats.

The BJP is reported to have agreed to leave a dozen seats for its ally Jana Sena Party (JSP) led by actor-turned-politician Pawan Kalyan.

A seat sharing agreement between the two parties is likely to be announced in a day or two.

The BJP has fielded Bantu Ramesh Kumar from Kodangal, where Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy is contesting.

The state's ruling BRS has fielded sitting MLA P. Narender Reddy.

Meanwhile, Tula Uma, who had quit TRS (now BRS) to join the BJP in 2021, has been fielded from Vemulawada, where there were several aspirants for the seat.

In Munugode, where the BJP had lost the bypolls held in November last year, Chalamalla Krishna Reddy will be the party candidate.

The saffron party recently received a big jolt in this constituency with the resignation of Komatireddy Raj Gopal Reddy, who returned to the Congress.

Raj Gopal Reddy had quit Congress and resigned from the Assembly to join BJP in August last year.

In the bypoll, he lost to K. Prabhakar Reddy of BRS by 10,309 votes.

Raj Gopal Reddy will now be contesting as Congress candidate while BRS has retained Prabhakar Reddy.

The BJP had announced the first list of 52 candidates on October 22 while the second list had just one name. The third list of 35 candidates was announced on November 2.