Vijayawada: Educated youth, women get priority

Vijayawada : TDP and Jana Sena which had promised to bring good governance in the state have given priority to educated youth and women in first list of candidates.

Of the total 94 candidates’ names announced by TDP national president N Chandrababu Naidu, Ramanjaneyulu who would contest from Prattipadu constituency of Guntur district is a retired IAS officer. In the remaining 93 candidates 30 candidates are post-graduates including two PHds, 63 graduates including three doctors, 24 are youth and 13 women.

The number of first-time contestants stands at 23. The TDP gave priority for BCs in selection of candidates. Announcing the names, Chandrababu Naidu said that for the first time he made such a detailed exercise in selection of candidates. He said the candidates were selected by collecting opinion of one crore people through IVRS and other means.

He said while the YSRCP fielded redsanders smugglers, the TDP gave preference to educated people to make responsible to people.

Meanwhile, Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan announced the names of five candidates though 24 seats were allotted to Jana Sena. Of them, Nadendla Manohar would be contesting from Tenali is the former Speaker of undivided Andhra Pradesh and is an MBA.

Loka Madhavi contesting from Nellimarla is an MS and worked as programmer in ISRO and later set up Miracle software systems. Konatala Ramakrishna who would contest from Anakapalli is a postgraduate and a senior politician. TDP senior leaders who are still waiting and could not make it into the first list are K Kala Venkatarao, Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary, Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, Ganta Srinivasa Rao, Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao, Alapati Raja, Chintamaneni Prabhakar, Gowtu Sirisha and Yarapatineni Srinivasa Rao.

These names would be announced within a week or so once the seat sharing with BJP was finalised. Meanwhile, TDP leader and former Deputy Speaker Buragadda Veda Vyas of Krishna district fell unconscious after coming to know that his name was missing in first list. He was rushed to nearby hospital.