Jana Sena chief chooses long time associate for LS seat

: Jana Sena chief Pawan Kalyan Saturday chose long-time associate and businessman B Mahender Reddy as the party candidate for the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha seat in Telangana, election for which is scheduled for April 11.

He is JSP's first candidate in Telangana while it has already announced six candidates for Lok Sabha and 32 for the Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.

"Mahender Reddy has been working with me for many years now with the objective of serving society. Hence I have decided to nominate him from Malkajgiri," Kalyan announced here.

Interestingly, the erstwhile Praja Rajyam Party of Kalyan's eldest brother K Chiranjeevi chose Reddy as its candidate for the Medak Lok Sabha seat in 2009 but could not file the nomination papers on the last day as he was "stuck in a traffic jam".

"We are now compensating him for that," Kalyan remarked.

The film star-turned-politician said they were now inviting applications from interested candidates to contest the Lok Sabha elections in Telangana.

A two-member committee has been set up to screen the applications.

The Jana Sena general body would take the final selection, he added.

Established in March 2014, the Jana Sena did not contest the general elections then but supported the TDP-BJP, who were then in alliance.

It did not contest the Assembly elections in Telangana in December last year, but said it would field candidates for Lok Sabha.

The five-year-old party is fighting its first electoral battle this time and has allied with the CPI and CPI(M) in Andhra Pradesh and BSP in AP and Telangana.