Khammam: Congress action continues within party while others intensify campaign

The selection of the Congress Khammam Lok Sabha candidate has turned out to be an unending saga with a new name coming up for consideration for the ticket every few days.

Khammam: With barely one month left for the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress leadership seems to be finding it tough to overcome its predicament in finalising a candidate for the Khammam Lok Sabha seat.

This is after the BRS and BJP have already announced their candidates Nama Nageswara Rao and Tandra Vinod Rao and have already launched electioneering. On the official side, a help desk has been started on April 8 to provide nomination forms for filing nominations and a fortnight is left for filing nominations. Only the Congress party is missing from action.

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The selection of the Congress Khammam Lok Sabha candidate has turned out to be an unending saga with a new name coming up for consideration for the ticket every few days. The party leadership has been caught in a Catch 22 situation as it has become a family affair with family members of three Ministers in the district in the race for the ticket. These are Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka’s wife Mallu Nandini, minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy’s brother P Prasad Reddy and minister Tummala Nageswara Rao’s son T Yugandhar.

In addition to the above names, senior party leaders V Hanumantha Rao and Jetti Kusum Kumar, a business man VVC Rajendra Prasad and former MP Ramasahayam Surender Reddy’s son Raghuram Reddy are also in the race, besides several other leaders in the district.

According to the sources, the party high command reportedly decided not to give tickets to family members of the ministers and also asked them to suggest alternate names. In this backdrop, the name of a former minister Mandava Venkateswara Rao, who was with the TDP and BRS in the past, has come to the fore of late.

Venkateswara Rao, who belongs to Nizamabad district, is said to be a close associate of minister Nageswara Rao. Since he is a non-local leader, whether the cadres and leaders in the district could support him or not is a puzzle as local minority leader Mohammed Javed and others are also asking for the party ticket.

Though the Congress leadership is confident of winning the Lok Sabha seat as the party performed well in recent Assembly elections in the district, delay in the selection of the candidate might send wrong signals to the cadres, opined the party leaders.