BJP fields Daggubati Purandeswari, Kanna for Vizag, Narasaraopeta seats

Vijayawada: The BJP on Thrusday named former Union minister Daggubati Purandeswari as its candidate for the Vizag Lok Sabha constituency, from where sitting MP K. Haribabu was dropped because he was reportedly not keen to contest.

BJP state chief Kanna Lakshminarayana has been fielded from the Narasaraopeta LS constituency.

The BJP has nominated two candidates so far out of the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in Andhra Pradesh in the list released by BJP’s Central Election Committee secretary J.P. Nadda. Ms Purandheswari who contested from the Rajampet LS seat in alliance with the TD in 2014.

It was like a homecoming for Ms Purandeswari as she had represented Vizag Lok Sabha as a Congress nominee in 2009.

She switched over to the BJP just before the 2014 polls but the Vizag ticket was given to Mr Haribabu.

Vizag is still considered a strong bastion of Ms Purandeswari where she will face, among others, CBI former joint director J.D. Lakshminarayana of the Jana Sena.

While it was speculated that Mr Kanna Lakshminarayana, the state BJP chief, would be fielded for the Assembly polls, he was fielded from the Narasaraopeta Lok Sabha seat.