Hyderabad, Mar 22 (IANS): The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Thursday announced candidates for all 17 Lok Sabha constituencies in Telangana, denying tickets to three outgoing MPs including its leader in Lok Sabha, A.P. Jithender Reddy.
Jithender Reddy, who was elected from Mahabubnagar in 2014, was replaced by M. Srinivas Reddy.
P. Srinivas Reddy, who was elected from Khammam on a YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) ticket in the previous elections and later joined the TRS, was also dropped.
Nama Nageswara Rao, who quit the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Wednesday and formally joined the TRS Thursday morning, was named as the candidate for Khammam in the list announced Thursday night.
The TRS has also not fielded Seetaram Naik, the outgoing MP from Mahabubabad. Maloth Kavitha was named as the candidate.
Chief Minister and TRS President K. Chandrashekhar Rao's daughter K. Kavitha will seek re-election from Nizamabad while senior leader B. Vinod will contest again from Karimnagar.
The TRS has named state minister Malla Reddy's son-in-law Rajasekhar Reddy as the candidate from Malkajgiri. In 2014, Malla Reddy was elected from this constituency on a TDP ticket but later joined the TRS. He was elected to the Assembly in the recent elections and was inducted into the cabinet.
Another state minister T. Srinivas Yadav's son Saikiran Yadav will be the candidate from Secunderabad constituency.
In a friendly contest against Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) President Asaduddin Owaisi in Hyderabad constituency, the TRS named P. Srikant Reddy as its candidate. The ruling party has already made it clear that its target is to win 16 seats, leaving Hyderabad for the MIM.
Outgoing MP from Nalgonda, Gutta Sukhender Reddy, who won the seat on Congress ticket in 2014 but defected to the TRS, decided not to contest again for Lok Sabha. V. Narasimha Reddy was named as his replacement.
Other TRS candidates are G. Nagesh (Adilabad), N. Venkatesh (Peddapalli), K. Prabhakar Reddy (Medak), B.B. Patil (Zahirabad), Ranjit Reddy (Chevella), P. Ramulu (Nagarkurnool), P. Dayakar (Warangal) and B. Narsaiah Goud (Bhongir).
Out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state, TRS had bagged 11 in the previous election. One MP each from the TDP, Congress and YSR Congress later joined it while one TRS MP recently switched loyalty to Congress.