Hyderabad, April 17 : The Lok Satta Party on Tuesday announced that Maddipatla Siddaiah Naidu (47), a former defense employee, will contest the by-election to the Assembly from Tirupati and Dr Kondeti Kondaiah (48) will be party's candidate from Anantapur.

Announcing this at a media conference, Lok Satta Party leaders Katari Srinivasa Rao, V. Laxman Balaji and P. Bhaskara Rao criticized the Chief Minister sharply for allocating public resources to boost Congress party prospects in by-elections. The State funding the Congress election campaign is blatant abuse of power, they added. Adding insult to injury, the Government is nominating party workers to execute e works without calling for tenders.

The Lok Satta leaders appealed to the electorate to ponder whether they should vote for parties which instead of addressing people's problems in legislatures sought to disrupt them. By voting for the Lok Satta, people should demonstrate they are thirsting for a change in political culture.

They pointed out that the by-elections have been foisted upon people by parties merely to serve their leaders' personal agenda.