Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Central Election Committee continued to hedge its bets on new entrants into the party to contest the Lok Sabha polls with turncoats, mostly those from the BRS, getting tickets in the second list released on Wednesday.
If former BRS MPs A. Seetaram Naik and G. Nagesh got the party nod for the seats of Mahabubabad and Adilabad respectively, former BRS MLA S. Saidi Reddy will be contesting from Nalgonda. It means sitting BJP Adilabad MP Soyam Bapu Rao has been dropped as was widely speculated. A Congress leader G. Srinivas got the ticket to contest from Peddapalli. Incidentally, all these leaders joined the saffron party just a few days ago in New Delhi and have been rewarded with tickets.
Party vice president D.K. Aruna seems to managed to ward off the challenge from another former MP A.P. Jithender Reddy to get nominated for the Mahabubnagar Parliament constituency, while former MLA M. Raghunandan Rao got the Medak ticket for which he has been lobbying hard. Even these two leaders are recent entrants having moved from the Congress Party and the BRS, respectively.
