Lok Satta fields Vignan Rattaiah for Malkajgiri Lok Sabha seat

The Lok Satta Party today admitted renowned educationist Dr. Lavu Rattaiah in the party and named him as the candidate for the Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency. Dr. Rattaiah has had the distinction of shaping the lives of tens of thousands of students in Andhra Pradesh by establishing the Vignan group of educational institutions. The Vignan Engineering College founded by him is today a deemed university.

Welcoming him into the party, Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan said Dr. Rattaiah has helped lakhs of poor and middle class students to come up in life by imparting them education of very high standards. He was glad that Dr. Rattaiah had accepted his invitation to join the party and share the burden of leadership. "His joining the party marks a turning point in the Lok Satta history."

Dr, JP pointed out that the people were thirsting for a fundamental change in the nature of politics and instanced how Mrs. Santakumari a practicing chartered accountant from Kalyandurg in Anantapur district has come forward to contest the elections on behalf of the party which alone can lead the country out of the present mess. Dr. JP said that Miss Samhita, a 14-year-old girl, donated the Rs.1000 the birthday gift she had received from her grandmother because she could not vote for the Lok Satta Party for four more years to go.

Dr. Rattaiah disclosed that he had joined the Lok Satta Party with a view to repaying the debt of gratitude to society which has made him what he is today. "I have achieved the ultimate in education by founding a university." Although he had a good understanding of politics and society, and was educationally qualified, he did not want to knock at the doors of any political party seeking a ticket to contest elections. The Lok Satta Party, in contrast to other parties, had invited him to join the party and serve the country. The Lok Satta decision would serve an eye-opener to other parties in that they too would have to choose deserving candidates and rowdies to contest elections.

Asked whether Dr. Rattaiah could overcome the "outsider" tag by contesting from Malkajgiri, Dr. JP replied that every one in India is an insider for the Lok Satta. The Constitution guarantees every one's right to live and work and contest elections from anywhere in the country. Dr. Rattaiah replied he has been living in Hyderabad for more than two decades and educating thousands of children through his educational institutions.

The Lok Satta Party today released 5th list of it's candidates to contest the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. With this list the party has so far released the names of 170 candidates for the Assembly and 18 for the LokSabha elections.

MLA Candidates

Sl.No.	Name	Constituency	Dist
1	Majid Bin Abid	Adilabad	Adilabad
2	Battula Madhu	Bellampally	Adilabad
3	Shanta Kumari	Kalyanadurgam	Anantapur
4	P B Phanindar	Puttaparthi	Anantapur
5	Kinnera Shyam Sundar	Huzurabad	Karimnagar
6	L Raja Reddy	Karimnagar	Karimnagar
7	R Santhosh Babu	Sircilla	Karimnagar
8	Krishna Kumar Reddy	Devarakadra	Mahaboobnagar
9	K Raja Mallesh	Makthal	Mahaboobnagar
10	P Narender	Shadnagar	Mahaboobnagar
11	Chinta Lakshman Rao	Andole	Medak
12	Kishtaiah	Bhongiri	Nalgonda
13	B Krishna	Armoor	Nizamabad
14	Geeta Murthy	Bhansuwada	Nizamabad
15	Manchineni Srinivaswa Rao	Darsi	Prakasam
16	G Chandraiah	Chevella	Ranga Reddy
17	Satyanarayana Reddy	Parigi	Ranga Reddy
18	Venkatesh	Vikarabad	Ranga Reddy
19	Irya Banothu Nayak	Mahaboobabad	Warangal
20	Kurma Jagan	Parakal	Warangal

MP Candidates

1	Dr Raghuveer Reddy	Chevella
2	L Rattaiah	Malkajgiri
3	Vidyasagar	Nagarkurnool
4	S Manorama	Narasapuram
5	Jupalli Satyanarayna	Khammam