In a major move, the Telangana unit of the Telugu Desam party (TDP) on Thursday announced Nandamuri Suhasini, the daughter of actor-politician Nandamuri Harikrishna, as its candidate for the Kukatpally constituency in Hyderabad, for the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections.
Suhasini's name was announced after she met with TDP President and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu earlier in the day, which upset senior leaders E Peddi Reddy and Mandadi Srinivasa Rao, who were aspiring to get the ticket. However, Naidu assured both leaders that he would give them appropriate positions of power later.
With this, the granddaughter of TDP founder and late Chief Minister NT Rama Rao has also entered the fray. This also means that the Nandamuri family, including Nandamuri Balakrishna, may come out to campaign for the candidate. Suhasini is also the half-sister of popular actor Jr NTR.
In 2014, it was Madhavaram Krishna Rao who had won the Kukatpally seat from the TDP, but has since defected to the TRS. The incumbent ruling party has renominated him and he is now expected to go up against Suhasini.
On Wednesday, the Telangana unit of the TDP announced its candidates for two more Assembly constituencies, Sama Ranga Reddy for Ibrahimpatnam and Ganesh Gupta for Rajendranagar, taking the total count to eleven candidates out of the 14 seats it has been offered.
Earlier, the TDP said that Nama Nageswara Rao will be contesting from Khammam, Revuri Prakash Reddy from Warangal West, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah from Sathupalli, Kothakota Dayakar Reddy from Makthal, Erra Shekhar from Mahabubnagar, T Veerender Goud from Uppal, Anand Prasad from Serilingampally, Mecha Nageswar Rao from Aswaraopeta and Muzzafar Ali Khan from Malakpet.
Harikrishna, the fourth son of NTR and a former MP and ex-Andhra Pradesh Minister died in a road accident when an SUV he was driving overturned in Telangana's Nalgonda district. The actor-politician was popular as 'sarathi' or charioteer of his father's 'Chaitanya Ratham', the name of the vehicle on which NTR toured the state after floating the TDP in 1982.