Andhra bypoll: BJP indecisive over Telengana candidates

Hyderabad: The BJP is facing a dilemma over contesting the bypolls to seven Assembly constituencies in Andhra Pradesh scheduled for 18 March as majority of the seats fall in the politically sensitive Telangana region. Of the seven seats, the party has so far decided to field candidates only in Mahabubnagar and Kovur.[caption id=“attachment_221615” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Thinking over candidates. PTI”]  [/caption] “We have decided to field candidates in Mahabubnagar (in Telangana) and Kovur (in coastal Andhra). We are yet to decide on contesting in the remaining five other seats (all in Telangana),” BJP state general secretary N Ramachandra Rao said. Except Kovur, all other seats—Mahabubnagar, Kollapur, Nagarkurnool, Station Ghanpur, Adilabad and Kamareddy—fall in Telangana region which has ofter witnessed turmoil over separate statehood. The bypolls in six out of seven constituencies in Telangana region are necessitated following resignation of the sitting MLAs in support of separate statehood demand and death of Mahabubnagar MLA. The predicament for BJP now is that it would be accused of letting a split in pro-Telangana votes if it fields candidates, while it would miss a political opportunity if it does not take the plunge, party sources said. Significantly, BJP is at the forefront of separate Telangana agitation and it has been a member of the Telangana political Joint Action Committee (JAC) spearheading the stir. However, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), which is also a member of JAC, has announced candidates for all the seats which has ruffled the feathers of BJP. PTI