Telangana Assembly Polls: Congress announces second list with 45 names

Congress drops the second batch of Assembly Election candidates, unveiling 45 names

Hyderabad: The All India Congress Committee on Friday released the second list of 45 Congress candidates for the forthcoming elections. The first list of 55 candidates was released on October 15, with the party yet to finalise candidates for 19 more constituencies.

The list was declared by the party after the Central Election Committee and Screening Committees conducted marathon meetings with Telangana Congress leaders at New Delhi for the last two days. Though tickets were issued to candidates as expected by the aspirants in many constituencies, there were a quite a few surprises in the list. Many leaders, who joined from other parties, were also allotted tickets while the candidates for the Kamareddy and Gajwel, from where Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao will be contesting, were yet to be announced. So was the case with Sircilla.

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For instance, BJP leader Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, who joined the Congress on Friday morning, was allotted the Munugode seat. The CPM was insisting for the constituency under its alliance with the Congress. Similarly former BRS corporator V Jagadeeshwar Goud was offered a ticket from Serilingampally. In another surprise, balladeer Gaddar’s daughter GV Venella was given the Secunderabad Cantonment ticket.

Drawing curtains to the uncertainty over Palair and Khammam, the party offered tickets to former MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and former Minister Thummala Nageswara Rao respectively.

Former MP Ponnam Prabhakar was given the Husnabad ticket. Former Indian cricket team captain Mohammed Azharuddin was given the Jubilee Hills ticket, which was being demanded by former CLP P Janardhan Reddy’s son P Vishnuvardhan Reddy. However, the Khairatabad ticket was issued to Janardhan Reddy’s daughter and GHMC corporator P Vijaya Reddy. Rohin Reddy, who was an aspirant from the constituency, was given Amberpet.

OBC Wing leader Katti Venkat Swamy was denied the Warangal East ticket, which was given to former Minister Konda Surekha. Former MP Madhuyaskhi Goud will contest from LB Nagar, despite local Congress leaders opposing his candidature from the constituency. Posters and banners were set up at Gandhi Bhavan not to issue tickets to ‘parachute’ leaders. The Adilabad ticket was offered to Kandi Srinivas Reddy, whose candidature was also being opposed by local Congress leaders, citing his RSS roots.

Interestingly, K Laxma Reddy, a prominent leader from Medchal, has been issued the Maheswaram constituency.

There is no clarity on the four tickets to be issued to the Left parties. Party sources said the high command would finalise the tickets to these parties in a few days.