Pawan, Lokesh among 81 new faces in Assembly

Vijayawada: Jana Sena Party chief and actor Pawan Kalyan and TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh are among 81 fresh faces in the Assembly.

Nearly half of the newly-elected MLAs in the state are first-timers.

Former Union ministers Kotla Surya Prakash Reddy and Sujana Chowdary are also among first-time MLAs in the 175-member House.

Majority of the fresh faces are from TDP, which bagged 135 seats.

Fifteen out of 21 newly-elected MLAs of Jana Sena are also new faces.

After suffering defeat from both the Assembly seats he contested in 2019, Pawan Kalyan finally made it to the Assembly by winning the Pithapuram seat in Kakinada district.

Lokesh has been elected from Mangalagiri constituency. He too had to face a debacle from the same constituency in the previous election.

He had served as a minister in the TDP government between 2014 and 2019 when he was a member of the Legislative Council.

Four of the eight BJP MLAs are also new faces. They include Sujana Chowdary, a former Union minister, who has been elected from Vijayawada West.

Another former Union minister Kotla Jaya Surya Prakash Reddy was elected on a TDP ticket. Son of former chief minister late Kotla Vijayabhaskar Reddy, Prakash Reddy won the Dhone seat in Nandyal district.

Gouthu Sireesha, granddaughter of freedom fighter Sardar Gouthu Latchanna and daughter of former minister Gouthu Sivaji, has also entered the Assembly for the first time.

She was elected from the Palasa constituency in Srikakulam district.

Former Union minister and senior TDP leader P Ashok Gapatahi Raju’s daughter Aditi Vijayalakshmi Gajapathi Raju has finally made it to the Assembly from Vizianagaram after suffering defeat in the previous election.

Former YSRCP MP K Raghurama Krishna Raju has also been elected to the Assembly. He was elected from Undi constituency on a TDP ticket.

Earlier, he was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2019 on a YSRCP ticket from Narsapuram but later revolted against the party leadership. He joined the TDP just before the general elections.

Former chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s brother N Kishore Kumar Reddy has also been elected to the Assembly for the first time.

He successfully contested as TDP candidate from Pileru constituency in Chittoor district.

Kiran Kumar Reddy, the last chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh and a BJP leader, suffered defeat from Rajampet Lok Sabha constituency.

Lokam Naga Madhavi (Nellimarla), S Vijaykumar (Yelamanchili), Pantam Nanaji (Kakinada Rural), Deva Varaprasad (Razole), Giddi Satyanarayana (P Gannavaram), Bathula Balaramakrishna (Rajanagaram), Kandula Durgesh (Nidadavole), Bommidi Narayana Nayakar (Narspuram) are among the debutants from the Jana Sena.

Two of the 11 MLAs of the YSRCP are also first-timers.