Andhra Pradesh chief minister and YSR Congress Party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy dropped 10 more MLAs as he announced the third list of candidates contesting the upcoming assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.

The third list with the names of 15 candidates for MLA seats was released by Reddy on Thursday night. He also announced candidates for six Lok Sabha seats, elections for which would be held simultaneously.

The YSRCP chief effected major changes in the constituencies of some MLAs and MPs.

In the first list of 11 candidates released on December 11, the YSRCP chief dropped three MLAs and in the second list released on January 4, another 10 MLAs were denied tickets. With the latest dropping in the third list, the total number of party candidates who have been denied the tickets went up to 23. The YSRCP has 151 MLAs in the 175-member assembly.

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The 10 YSRCP MLAs who were denied tickets in the third list are: Vunnamatla Rakada Eliza (Chintalapudi), Maddisetty Venugopal (Darsi), Meda Venkata Mallikarjun Reddy (Rajampet), Jardadoddin Sudhakar (Kodumuru), K Parthasarathy (Penamaluru), M S Babu (Putalapattu), V Varaprasada Rao (Gudur), Arani Srinivasulu (Chittoor) and Kapu Ramachandra Reddy (Rayadurgam).

State housing minister Jogi Ramesh, who represents Pedana assembly constituency, has been shifted to Penamaluru, state labour minister Gummanur Jayaram, who represents Aluru assembly constituency, has been shifted as the party candidate for Kurnool Lok Sabha seat and Satyaveedu MLA Koneru Adimulam has been moved to Tirupati Lok Sabha constituency.

The new candidates who were given the party ticket are: Icchapuram — Pirya Vijaya (ZP chairperson), Tekkali – Duvvada Srinivas, Chintalapudi – Kambham Vijaya Rao, Darsi – Buchepalli Sivaprasada Reddy, Madanapalli – Nissar Ahmed, Rajampet – Akepalli Amarnath Reddy, Satyavedu – Maddela Guru Murthy, Kodumuru – Dr Satish, Pedana – Uppala Ramu, Penamaluru – Jogi Ramesh, Puthalapattu – M Sunil Kumar, Aluru – Busine Virupakshi, Gudur – Meruga Murali, Chittoor – Vijayananda Reddy and Rayadurgam – Mettu Govinda Reddy.

The YSRCP chief made six changes in the Lok Sabha constituencies. For Srikakulam, he is fielding Perada Tilak, who unsuccessfully lost the assembly elections from Tekkali against Telugu Desam Party candidate K Atchannaidu in 2019. He will now be taking on Atchannaidu’s nephew K Rammohan Naidu from Srikakulam Lok Sabha seat.

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Former Vizianagaram MP Botsa Jhansi Lakshmi, wife of state education minister Botsa Satyanarayana, will be contesting the Lok Sabha elections from Visakhapatnam, in place of M V V Satyanarayana, who will be contesting the assembly elections.

For Eluru Lok Sabha seat, Jagan has nominated a relatively newcomer Karumuri Sunil Kumar Yadav, son of state civil supplies minister Karumuri Nageshwar Rao.

Vijayawada MP Kesineni Nani, who defected from TDP a couple of days ago, has been announced as the party candidate for Vijayawada Lok Sabha seat, while Gummaluru Jayaram has been announced as MP candidate from Kurnool.

For Tirupati Lok Sabha seat, Satyaveedu MLA Koneti Adimulam has been finalised in place of sitting MP M Gurumurthy, who has been moved as an MLA candidate from Satyaveedu.