On Saturday, TDP and Jana Sena jointly declared their first list of candidates for Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls.
Of the 99 candidates announced so far, five belong to the Jana Sena Party while the remaining 94 are from Telugu Desam Party. DP will contest 94 seats out of the state’s total 175 Assembly seats, JSP will contest 24 seats whereas the remaining 57 seats have been kept pending. Sources in the TDP said that both TDP and Jana Sena are waiting to see if BJP would join their alliance, which would necessitate seat-sharing in the 57 seats. Kammas and Reddys, two powerful castes in AP State, have got the lion’s share in the first list of 99 candidates announced by TDP- JSP combine for forthcoming Assembly elections.
Among all castes, Kammas, to which TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu belongs, has received the highest number of tickets (22).
The TDP-JSP alliance also fielded 17 candidates from Reddy community. Both TDP and JSP have tried to strike a balance and ensure representation to all the key groups. 19 of the candidates are from BCs while 20 are from SCs.
Kapus, a community Pawan Kalyan comes from, has been allotted 10 tickets. There are 4 candidates from Kshatriyas, 3 from STs, 2 from Vysyas and one each from Velama and Muslims.