Vijayawada: The three TDP candidates — Sana Satish, Bashyam Ramakrishna, and Chintakayala Vijay — filed their nomination papers for Rajya Sabha elections on Monday in the Andhra Pradesh assembly premises.Having received their B-forms from party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday itself soon after their names were announced, they paid homage to TDP founder and late chief minister NT Rama Rao at the party’s central office in Mangalagiri on Monday before leaving for the assembly. Leaders of the ruling coalition participated in the nomination process and signed as proposers, following which the papers were submitted to returning officer R Vanitha Rani.All three candidates submitted two sets of nomination papers each. Chief whip GV Anjaneyulu and Kanna Lakshminarayana proposed sitting Raja Sabha MP Sana Satish’s name, while Pantham Venkateswara Rao and Tangirala Soumya backed it. Ramakrishna’s proposers included minister K Atchannaidu, and MLAs B Ramanjaneyulu, Bolisetti Srinivas, and Sriram Tatayya. Vijay’s name was proposed by minister Kolusu Parthasarathy and MLAs Kamineni Srinivas, Sundarapu Vijay Kumar, and Bode Prasad.NDA legislators Jyothula Venkata Appa Rao, Vanamadi Venkateswara Rao, Varupula Satya Prabha, Bandaru Satyananda Rao, and chairman of 20-point programme implementation committee, Lanka Dinakar, were also present.Satish, a long-time TDP loyalist, was a strong aspirant for Kakinada Lok Sabha seat during the 2024 elections. After the seat was allotted to alliance partner Jana Sena, he entered the Rajya Sabha following the resignation of YSRCP MP Mopidevi Venkata Ramana in 2025. As he has served only 18 months of his five-year term, he was renominated by party chief Naidu.Ramakrishna too has been associated with the TDP for long and was a strong contender for Guntur Lok Sabha constituency in 2014 and 2019. His name was also doing the rounds for Eluru Lok Sabha seat in 2024. He was picked ahead of veteran leaders Kambhampati Rammohan Rao, Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, and TD Janardhan, who were also aspiring for the seat.Vijay, son of assembly speaker Ayyanna Patrudu, was a contender for the Anakapalli Lok Sabha seat in the 2024 elections. With the seat going to the BJP, Naidu decided to send him to the Upper House. Vijay was instrumental in building the party’s social media base as head of ITDP wing.Jana Sena candidate Lingamaneni Ramesh had filed his papers on Saturday itself. With NDA enjoying majority in the assembly, all four candidates are likely to be declared unanimously elected on June 18.
