BJP fields four 'last minute' entrants in LS poll fray in Telangana

Four leaders from other parties who switched over to the BJP at the eleventh hour were included in the second list of contesting candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls released by the party on Wednesday.

The BJP released a list of 72 candidates, including six from Telangana.

Former BRS leaders -- Seetaram Naik, Shanampudi Saidireddy and Godam Nagesh and Congress leader Gomasa Srinivas joined BJP on March 10.

D K Aruna (Mahabubnagar) and M Raghunandan Rao (Medak) are the remaining candidates announced by the saffron party for the polls from Telangana.

Naik and Nagesh, who represented Mahabubabad and Adilabad earlier respectively, will be contesting from the same segments while Saidireddy, a former BRS MLA and Srinivas will be fielded from Nalgonda and Pedapalli respectively.

Union Minister and state BJP president G Kishan Reddy, BJP national general secretary and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar, sitting MP Arvind Dharmapuri and senior leader Eatala Rajender were among the candidates from Telangana whose names figured in the first list of Lok Sabha candidates announced by the party on March 2.

Telangana has 17 Lok Sabha seats.

The BJP has so far announced candidates for 15 seats in the state. Candidates for Khammam and Warangal are yet to be announced.

In the 2019 general elections, the party won four seats.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)