HYDERABAD: Political parties in the state will get an additional month to sharpen their strategies and campaign for the Lok Sabha elections as against 2019, with the Election Commission of India on Saturday announcing that polling for the 17 seats from the state will be held on May 13. The counting of votes will be on June 4.
Telangana state will go to polls in phase 4 of the nationwide elections, as against April 11 in the first phase in 2019. Voting for the byelection in Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly constituency, necessitated by the death of BRS MLA Lasya Nanditha in a car accident, will also be held on May 13.
With the announcement of the poll schedule, the model code of conduct is in force in the state.
The poll schedule announcement is expected to kick up the pace of political activity in the state among the three major parties, the Congress, the BJP, and the BRS, with all of them at different stages of finalising their candidates. These three parties have already launched their poll campaigns.
The hot button issues are expected to be corruption of the erstwhile BRS government, the reported fading strength of the erstwhile ruling party, the arrest of BRS MLC K. Kavitha and the 100-day performance of the Congress government.
The Congress, which said it would contest from all 17 constituencies, has so far finalized four of its candidates - Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy (Mahbubnagar), Kunduru Raghuveer Reddy (Nalgonda), Suresh Shetkar (Zaheerabad) and P. Balram Naik (Mahabubabad).
TPCC chief and Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Saturday said that the AICC's central election committee would announce second list of candidates either on March 18 or 19. But it is not clear whether it will announce candidates for all the remaining 13 constituencies in one go or in phases.
The BJP has so far announced 15 of its 17 candidates – Bandi Sanjay Kumar (Karimnagar), Arvind Dharmapuri (Nizamabad), B.B. Patil (Zaheerabad), Etala Rajendar (Malkajgiri), G. Kishan Reddy (Secunderabad), Dr K. Madhavi Latha (Hyderabad), Konda Vishweshwar Reddy (Chevella), P. Bharat (Nagarkurnool), Dr Boora Narsaiah Goud (Bhongir), M. Raghunandan Rao (Medak), D.K. Aruna (Mahbubnagar), G. Nagesh (Adilabad), S. Saidi Reddy (Nalgonda), Azmeera Sitaram Naik (Mahbubabad), and G. Srinivas (Peddapalli).
The BRS has so far announced 11 candidates: Ragidi Lama Reddy (Malkajgiri), Atram Sakku (Adilabad), Dr Kadiam Kavya (Warangal), Kasani Gnaneshwar Mudiraj (Chevella), B. Vinod Kumar (Karimnagar), Koppula Eshwar (Peddapalli), Nama Nageswara Rao (Khammam), Maloth Kavitha (Mahbubabad), Bajireddy Goverdhan (Nizamabad), Gali Anil Kumar (Zaheerabad) and Manne Srinivas Reddy (Mahbubnagar).
Though the BRS gave two seats – Nagarkurnool and Hyderabad – to the BSP, that tie-up fell apart on Saturday. R.S. Praveen Kumar who led the BSP in the state quit it on Saturday and is expected to contest from Nagarkurnool with the support of the BRS, if not join the party.
