Hyderabad: All major political parties began finalising their lists of candidates today soon after the Election Commission issued notification of the second phase of elections in 13 districts in the Seemandhra region, covering 25 Lok Sabha and 175 assembly constituencies.

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N. Chandrababu Naidu, who launched his campaign in Telengana, with roadshows in Andhra’s settler-dominated areas of Hyderabad today, released a second list that features four Congress turncoats.

On the list of 41 assembly and six Lok Sabha candidates are J.C. Diwakar Reddy who is running for the Anantapur Lok Sabha seat, Adala Prabhkar Reddy from Nellore, Galla Jaydeo from Guntur and R. Sambasiva Rao from Narsaraopet.

Other candidates include Naidu’s close friend Murli Mohan from Rajahmundyr and R. Srinivasulu Reddy from Kadapa.

The seven Lok Sabha candidates in the first list included K. Rammohan Rao, son of the late K. Yerran Naidu from Srikakulam, Maganti Venkateshwara Rao (Eluru), P Ashok Gajapati Raju (Vizianagaram) and N. Mohammad Farooq from Nandyal. Three sitting MPs — N Siva Prasad (Chittoor), K Narayana Rao (Machlipatanam) and Nimmala Kishtappa (Hindupur) — were also renominated.

As the TDP has left five Lok Sabha seats for the BJP, Naidu has to announce candidates for another seven Lok Sabha constituencies.

The last list was being held due to continuing differences between the TDP and the BJP over some of the seats.

The BJP has urged the TDP to take back seats such as the Rajampeta and Araku (ST) constituencies and allot other seats including Kakinada but the TDP has countered this, demanding that the BJP return Visakhapatnam in exchange of some other seat.

While the BJP realised that it is not in a position to find strong candidates for Rajampeta and Araku, the TDP has been under pressure from within its own ranks to retain Visakhpatanam.

Naidu is also under pressure to accommodate former minister Ganta Srinivas Rao as Visakhapatanam Lok Sabha candidate.

Ganta, who had switched over from Congress to TDP, was unhappy on not getting the TDP ticket and was reportedly planning to jump over to the YSRCP.

Naidu was also faces heat from other strong party leaders. Former minister G. Buchaiah Chowdhary met him and protested against leaving Rajahmundry (Urban) assembly seat to the BJP. However, Naidu expressed his inability to do anything about it, leaving Chowdhary fuming.

In Guntur former minister Kodela Siva Prasad Rao, however, grudgingly agreed to move to Sattenapally as his old assembly seat Narsaraopeta was allocated to the BJP. Naidu has also eased out the sitting Narsaraopeta MP M. Venguopal Reddy and replaced him with Rayapati Samba Siva Rao, who came from Congress.

As far as the TDP assembly list of TDP is concerned, the most prominent name is that of actor N. Balakrishna from Hindupur.

Though Naidu was reluctant to field him, the actor managed to bag the ticket after meeting Naidu this morning.

Other important names in the list are former Congress minister Galla Arunka Kumari (Chandragiri) and J.C. Prabhakar Reddy (Tadipatri).

He is the brother of former minister J.C. Diwakar Reddy.

Congress is expected to announce its list for Seemandhra later tonight. Expectations of a direct fight unfolding between the TDP and Jaganmohan Reddy’s YSRCP have been brewing as the region heads to the polls on May 7.

The filing of nomination papers will continue from April 12 to 19, with April 22 being the last date for withdrawal.