Hyderabad: The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) announced the first list of candidates, months ahead of the assembly polls in Telangana later this year. There have been just seven changes, and most sitting MLAs have been retained. According to the announcement, 115 of the total 119 candidates were announced. Names for Narsapur, Nampally, Goshamahal, and Jangaon assembly constituencies are yet to be announced.
"We are confident of winning 95 to 105 seats," K Chandrashekar Rao, who is looking to score a hat-trick in the southern state, said while releasing the names for 119 constituencies. The Chief Minister, who represents the Gajwel constituency in the state assembly, will contest from one more seat this time - Kamareddy. Gampa Govardhan of the BRS has won the election from Kamareddy for four consecutive terms - 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2018.
Congress, the main opposition party in the state, has just begun the exercise of candidate selection. The party has invited applications from August 18 to 25.
KCR is banking on a big push to social welfare schemes. His party has attacked the Congress, saying, if voted to power, they would withdraw the scheme which provides free power to farmers.
In the last elections, four opposition parties who were arch rivals - Congress, Telangana Jana Samithi, Telugu Desam Party, and CPI - formed 'Maha Kootami' (Grand Alliance) to defeat incumbent Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now BRS) but failed to get majority.