Congress releases first list of 55 candidates for Telangana elections

The Congress party on Sunday released the first list of 55 candidates for the forthcoming Assembly elections in Telangana. The list, which throws to the wind the party’s proclaimed stands including the Udaipur Declaration, which stipulates only one seat per family, includes Mynampally Hanumantha Rao and his son Mynampally Rohit.

The two, whose entry into the Congress saw a number of senior leaders quitting the party, will contest from Malkajgiri and Medak. The declaration was flouted again with Nalgonda MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy and his wife N Padmavathi being allotted tickets from Huzurnagar and Kodad respectively.

TPCC president A Revanth Reddy will be contesting from Kodangal, where he had lost in 2018, while former Minister K Jana Reddy’s son K Jayaveer will contest from Nagarjuna Sagar and Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkat Reddy will contest from Nalgonda. Notably, the names of Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy and former Minister Tummala Nageshwar Rao are missing from the first list. Though the Left parties had sought the Bhadrachalam seat, the ticket has been given to Podem Veeraiah.

The OBC wing, which asked for 34 seats, was given 12 constituencies, most of which are from the Old City including



Chandrayangutta, Yakutpura, Bahadurpura and Goshamahal, where Congress has bleak prospects.

The first list has already triggered dissent within the party, with more complaints expected, like in the case of former Minister Nagam Janardhan Reddy, who had asked for the Nagarkurnool seat, which was but given to K Rajesh Reddy. The Kalwakurthy ticket was offered to Kasireddy Narayan Reddy even as Raghavendra Reddy insisted on a ticket from the constituency. Former MLA Marri Shashidhar Reddy’s son Marri Aditya Reddy had sought a ticket from Sanathnagar, but the seat was given to Kota Neelima.

Former MP Anjan Kumar Yadav will contest from Musheerabad while his son Anil Kumar Yadav was denied the Secunderabad seat, which was instead given to Adam Santosh Kumar. Congress Legislative Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, former ministers T Jeevan Reddy and Duddilla Sridhar Babu also got seats.

In Gajwel, Thumkunta Narsa Reddy was given the ticket to face Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. Interestingly, Kamareddy, the second seat from where Chandrashekhar Rao will be contesting, has not found a spot in the list though senior Congress leader and former Minister Mohd Ali Shabbir was tipped to be the candidate.