Hyderabad: Battered by defections of its leg, the Congress in Telangana on Friday announced candidates for eight out of the state’s 17 Lok Sabha seats.

The first list of candidates was announced after the names of the candidates were cleared by the party’s central leadership.

Party’s state unit Working Presidents Revanth Reddy and Ponnam Prabhakar will contest from Malkajgiri and Karimnagar constituencies respectively. Both were defeated in Assembly elections held in December.

Sitting MP Konda Visweswar Reddy, who had defected to Congress from the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on the eve of Assembly polls, will seek re-election from Chevella.

The other candidates are Balram Naik (Mahabubabad), Ramesh Rathod (Adilabad), A. Chandrashekhar (Peddapalli), Gali Anil Kumar (Medak) and Madan Mohan (Zaheerabad).

The candidates for remaining seats are likely to be announced on Saturday.

Polling in Telangana is scheduled in a single phase on April 11 in the first phase of the seven phase Lok Sabha polls.