Telangana polls: BRS announces 115 candidates, KCR to contest from two seats

Hyderabad (IANS). Aiming for a hat-trick, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Monday announced the names of candidates for 115 seats in Telangana for the year-end assembly elections.

BRS President and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao told a press conference that the candidates for the remaining four seats would be announced later.

The BRS has denied tickets to sitting MLAs in eight constituencies. These include Kamareddy, from where Chief Minister KCR will contest in addition to his current seat, Gajwel.

In Botha, Khanapur, Vaira, Korutla, Uppal, Asifabad and Metpally, the ruling party has also denied tickets to the sitting MLAs.

Chief Minister KCR will contest from Gajwel in Siddipet district and Kamareddy in Kamareddy district. Gampa Govardhan was elected from Kamareddy in the 2018 election. KCR said he is contesting from Kamareddy on the request of the MLA and other leaders of the district.

KCR has given tickets to all the ministers elected to the assembly in the last election. His son and state minister K.T. Rama Rao will once again contest from Sircilla, while his nephew and state minister T. Harish Rao will seek re-election from Siddipet.

KCR said the candidates for Narsapur, Jangaon, Nampally and Goshamahal constituencies would be announced in three-four days.

The BRS chief expressed confidence that the party would retain power by winning 95-105 seats in the 119-member assembly.

The BRS had won 88 seats in the 2018 elections. Sixteen MLAs, including those from the Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and some independents, later joined the BRS.