Telangana Elections 2023: Aspirants of Chennur Congress ticket in a fix

Thirteen candidates had applied for the ticket of Chennur segment, indicating stiff competition

Mancherial: Aspirants of the Congress ticket from Chennur Assembly constituency are in a fix with the in principle allocation of the segment to Left parties as part of the Congress-Left alliance.

Thirteen candidates had applied for the ticket of Chennur segment, indicating stiff competition. Some of them included Dr Raja Ramesh, Ramilla Radhika, Nukala Ramesh, Gomase Srinivas, Boda Janardhan, Durgam Baskar, etc. They were also conducting a slew of programmes including social service activities. They recently intensified campaigning, claiming that they would get the ticket from Chennur reserved for Scheduled Castes (SC).

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The aspirants are split into factions, creating confusion among the cadres. While Raja Ramesh is backed by Congress Legislature Party leader Bhatti Vikramarka, Nukala Ramesh enjoys the support of former MLC K Prem Sagar Rao. The other aspirants are reportedly assured of the ticket by some top leaders of the party including TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy.

However, the high command of the party declared that Chennur segment was earmarked for Left parties as part of the alliance between the Congress and CPI. It is learnt that the Left party wanted the segment considering its traditional vote bank in the form of coal miners in Kyathanpalli and Mandamarri towns.

Now, the aspirants are requesting the high command of the Congress not to give the segment to the Left parties and to retain it for the party. They reason that the party too has a vote bank in Jaipur, Chennur, Kotapalli and Bheemaram mandals. They are anxious over the final decision to be made by the top leadership of the party.

Some of them are camping in Hyderabad to exert pressure on the high command through certain key leaders of the outfit. The Congress has already announced candidatures of K Srihari Rao, K Prem Sagar Rao and Gaddam Vinod. While Srihari is contesting from Nirmal, Sagar Rao and Vinod will be fielded from Mancherial and Bellampalli (SC) segments, respectively.

Nominees of seven more segments namely Adilabad, Mudhole, Boath (ST), Khanapur, Chennur, Asifabad (ST), Sirpur (T) are yet to be selected. As many as 94 aspirants submitted applications for the ticket of the Congress from 10 Assembly constituencies in erstwhile Adilabad district.