Race for Palair Congress ticket heats up

Taking lead in the race for the party’s ticket, TPCC member Rayala Nageswara Rao, who has already applied for the ticket, met the party’s screening committee chairman, MP K Muraleedharan and member Baba Siddique in Hyderabad on Tuesday and submitted his bio-data.

Khammam: Competition for the Palair Assembly Congress ticket is getting intense with more leaders coming forward announcing their intentions to contest from the seat in the forthcoming Assembly elections.

Taking lead in the race for the party’s ticket, TPCC member Rayala Nageswara Rao, who has already applied for the ticket, met the party’s screening committee chairman, MP K Muraleedharan and member Baba Siddique in Hyderabad on Tuesday and submitted his bio-data. He explained to committee chairman and member about his contributions towards strengthening the party and appealed to them to consider his candidature for the seat. It might be noted that he contested for Palair seat in 2009 on a Praja Rajyam Party ticket and had lost.

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Nageswara Rao later joined Congress party and unsuccessfully contested for Khammam local authorities MLC constituency. He expected the party ticket in 2018 but the ticket was given to Kandala Upender Reddy.

Speaking to Telangana Today, he said he deserved the party ticket as he had made committed efforts to bolster the party at grassroots level in the constituency for the last several years. “I explained this to the screening committee and expect to get the ticket,” he added.

However, the ticket might not be easy for him, since former MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, who recently joined the Congress, has also submitted an application for Palair ticket besides for Kothagudem and Khammam seats. Former minister Tummala Nageswara Rao and YSRTP leader YS Sharmila, who are expected to join the Congress soon, too are said to be expecting the party ticket to contest from the Palair Assembly seat. Nageswara Rao had unsuccessfully contested from the seat in the 2018 elections.

In all, 14 candidates applied for the Palair Congress ticket including ex-MP Srinivas Reddy’s follower Maddineni Baby Swarna Kumari. Tummala Nageswara Rao and Sharmila have not submitted their applications for the party ticket.

Whether the party high command would consider their candidature bypassing the party’s newly introduced system of submitting applications by the aspirants along with a fee for the ticket and how the ticket aspirants react if the system is bypassed is a big question to be answered.