Within four days of quitting the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and jumping into the Congress party, sitting MP G Ranjith Reddy from Chevella parliamentary constituency and sitting MLA Danam Nagender from Khairatabad assembly constituency got the Congress tickets for the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana.
While Ranjit Reddy has been retained in the same Chevella constituency, Nagender has been given the party ticket from Secunderabad parliamentary constituency.
The Congress high command cleared the names of five MP candidates in the state in the second list released on Thursday. In the first list, which was released on March 8, four candidates were named.
Ranjith Reddy would fight against former MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy contesting on the Bharatiya Janata Party ticket and senior Mudiraj community leader Kasany Gyaneshwar from the BRS.
On the other hand, Danam Nagender will be fighting against state BJP president and Union tourism minister G Kishan Reddy. The BRS is yet to announce its candidate there.
Former Vikarabad zilla parishad chairperson Sunitha Mahender Reddy, who also defected from the BRS to the Congress a few days ago, along with her husband and former minister P Mahender Reddy, has been given the Congress ticket from Malkajgiri parliamentary constituency.
She will be fighting against Eatala Rajender of the BJP and Shambhipur Raju of the BRS. Sunitha was originally chosen for Chevella, but after Ranjith Reddy defected to the Congress, Sunitha has been moved to Malkajgiri.
The Congress high command finalised the candidature of former MP and PCC senior vice-president Mallu Ravi for Nagarkurnool parliamentary constituency.
He will be taking on Bharatiya Janata Party candidate P Bharat, son of sitting MP Pothuganti Ramulu and retired IPS officer R S Praveen Kumar, who quit the Bahujan Samaj Party and joined the BRS a couple of days ago.
The party also finalised the candidature of Gaddam Vamsi Krishna, managing director of Visakha Industries and son of former MP Gaddam Vivek, for the Peddapalli parliamentary constituency.
In the first list, the party announced the names of Suresh Kumar Shetkar (Zaheerabad), Challa Vamsichand Reddy (Mahabubnagar), Porika Balram Naik (Mahabubabad) and K Jaiveer Reddy (Nalgonda). All of them, however, are from the Congress.
