Top leaders of all parties Friday filed their nominations for the April 11 Lok Sabha and assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh as the day was considered auspicious.
Telugu Desam Party president and Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was campaigning in Visakhapatnam but party leaders filed the nomination papers with the returning officer on his behalf for the Kuppam assembly seat.
This is the seventh consecutive time that Naidu is seeking re-election from Kuppam, a backward constituency that borders Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in Chittoor district.
Leader of the Opposition and YSR Congress president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy filed his papers for the Pulivendula seat,his pocket borough in Kadapa district.
This is Jagans second bid for the Assembly after his election in 2014.
Actor-politician and Jana Sena president Pawan Kalyan filed nomination from Bhimavaram in West Godavari district, the second seat he is contesting in this election.
He had filed his papers for Gajuwaka seat in Visakhapatnam district on Thursday.
State BJP president Kanna Lakshminarayana, who is contesting the Lok Sabha election for the first time, filed his nomination from Narsaraopet constituency in Guntur district.
TDPs sitting MP Rayapati Sambasiva Rao also filed his papers.
Chandrababu Naidus brother-in-law and popular film actor Nandamuri Balakrishna filed his nomination for the Hindupur Assembly seat while his son-in-law and state IT Minister Nara Lokesh who is fighting his maiden election
completed the formality in Mangalagiri in the Andhra Pradesh capital region Amaravati.
Former minister P Manikyala Rao and film actor K Nagendra Babu filed nominations for the Narsapuram Lok Sabha seat as BJP and Jana Sena candidates respectively.
Babu is contesting the elections for the first time.
Manikyala Rao was elected as an MLA from Tadepalligudem for the first time in 2014.
Scores of other candidates also filed their papers in all the 13 districts Friday.
Mantralayam TDP candidate Tikka Reddy was brought in an ambulance and taken on a stretcher into the returning officers (RO) chamber for filing his nomination.
Reddy suffered a bullet injury to his left leg accidentally when his personal security officers fired in the air during a group clash in the constituency last week.
He had been admitted to a hospital in Hyderabad for treatment.
Meanwhile, police said they had to resort to lathicharge at Undi in West Godavari district as a scuffle broke out between Telugu Desam Party workers and YSR Congress workers when the candidates of the two parties came at the same time to the ROs office to file nominations.
Traffic came to a standstill in the town as scores of party workers filled the streets.
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