The Congress, late on Monday night, released its first list of 65 candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in Telangana. The party nominated Vanteru Pratap Reddy as its candidate from Gajwel from where Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao is to contest as the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) candidate.
Among other important candidates whose names were announced included Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy from Huzurnagar and his wife Padmavathi Reddy from Kodad. Also finding place in the first list was A Revanth Reddy from Kodangal, Md Ali Shabbir from Kamareddy, M Anil Kumar Yadav from Musheerabad and Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka from Madhira (SC) constituencies.
Significantly, former PCC president and Minister Ponnala Laxmaiah does not find a mention in the first list as Congress chose to hold back on announcing its candidate from Janagaon, the constituency Laxmaiah was hoping to get a ticket for. The name of former Minister Marri Shashidhar Reddy was also missing from the first list. The party had also not named anyone for the Khairatabad seat.
However, included in the list was Konda Surekha, who left the TRS in a huff recently. She will be the Congress nominee from Parkal constituency.
In what could be a show of strength by the Komatireddy brothers, the Congress walked back on its original plan to give Nakrekal (SC) seat to Ch Sudhakar of Telangana Inti Party. The Komatireddy brothers gave an ultimatum to the Congress leadership that this was not acceptable to them and that their follower and former MLA Chirumarthi Lingaiah should be the Congress nominee from the constituency.
Apparently aware of the Komatireddy brothers’ strength in the district, the Congress high command gave in to their demand. It also said Rajgopal Reddy would contest from Munugode while Venkat Reddy would do so from his Nalgonda seat.
The Congress first list also includes its nominees for Station Ghanpur, Ramagundam, Asifabad sought by TJS and Kothagudem sought by CPI, which may not be taken to kindly by the Congress allies. Meanwhile, Revanth Reddy’s follower Patel Ramesh has not been accommodated in Suryapet as demanded by Revanth Reddy. The seat was instead allocated to R Damodar Reddy.
The list was released by AICC around 11.30 pm and was signed by Mukul Wasnik, Congress general secretary in charge of the party’s Central Election Committee.
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