By Mohammed Siddiqu, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad : The finalization of the list of Congress candidates for the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh has put an end to he speculations about the former Indian cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin entering the electoral fray for Parliament.
There were speculations that Azhar may be given ticket either from Secunderabad or Nizamabad but the party has nominated the sitting MPs from both the constituencies- Anjan Kumar Yadav from Secunderabad and Madhu Goud Yashki from Nizamabad.
“These were all mere speculations. I never said that I will be contesting Lok Sabha elections”, said Mohammed Azharuddin. “I have always said that I will do what the party leadership asks me”, he said.
The list of Lok Sabha candidates okayed by the central leadership has 25 of the 29 sitting members re-nominated, some of them from new constituencies. As the Congress deputy leader from Lok Sabha G Venkatswamy and Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s brother Vivekananda Reddy have opted out of the electoral politics, party has nominated Venkatswamy’s son G Vivek from Peddapalle (SC) and YSR’s son YS Jaganmohan Reddy from Kadapa. The other two changes are former Chief Minister N Janardhan Reddy who has been sent to Rajya Sabbha instead of ticket to Lok Sabha and Harirama Jogaiah who has quit Congress and joined PRP.
There has been change of constituencies of three union ministers. S Jaipal Reddy will contest from Chevella as his constituency Miryalaguda has been scrapped as part of delimitation, D Purandareswari has been nominated from Visakhapatnam instead of Ongole which has been reserved for SCs and Panabaka Lakshmi, whose Nellore seat has been de-reserved and she has been nominated from Bapatla (SC).
Two other ministers Renuka Chowdhary and Pallam Raju have retained their constituencies of Khammam and Kakinada. Two defectors from Telugu Desam M Jagannatham and G Sukhinder Reddy have also been given tickets. Jagannatham who had supported Manmohan Singh government during the vote of confidence has been renominated from Nagarkurnool (SC) seat and former TDP vice president G Sukhinder Reddy, who joined Congress three days ago got the ticket from Nalgonda.
Caste and community break up of the candidates show that more than one third Congress tickets have been shared by Reddy and Kamma castes, whose total share in population is 9.5%. Reddy’s with a population of 5.9% have been given ten tickets while Kammas with 4.6% population have been given five tickets. Muslims with ten percent population have got two tickets while Kshatriyas with less than 2% population have got two tickets. Brahmin community has got 1.8% population and one ticket. BCs with 52% population have got 12 tickets. Three tribal and six members of scheduled castes have been nominated from their respective reserve constituencies.
Two candidates from Muslim minority include sitting MP Mohammed Nizamuddin from Hindupur and state minister Mohammed Fareeduddin from Zaheerabad.
The sitting TRS member and former BJP leader A Narendra, who had defected to Congress during confidence vote, has been denied ticket from Medak.
The Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy had his way in getting the ticket for his son but could not stop two of his bitter critics Madhu Goud and G Harsha Kumar getting renominated from Nizamabad and Amalapuram (SC).