Cong exercise on to pick candidates for 4 seats in Telangana

Hyderabad: The exercise by the Congress party to finalise candidates for the remaining four Lok Sabha seats in Telangana gathered pace on Monday.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and party in-charge for Telangana Deepa Dasmunshi are in Delhi to attend the Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting.

The CEC meeting to be presided over by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge is expected to take a final call on the candidates for Warangal, Khammam, Karimnagar and Hyderabad constituencies.

The meeting is also being attended by Congress parliamentary party leader Sonia Gandhi and party General Secretary K.C. Venugopal.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) has already requested the central leadership of the party to field party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra from Khammam. The high command has not yet responded and a decision on this is likely to be taken at the CEC meeting.

The state election committee of the party has cleared the candidates for the four seats and submitted the same to CEC for a final nod.

The party has already announced candidates for 13 out of 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Joining of some key leaders from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the multiple aspirants for the tickets delayed selection of candidates for four seats.

The CEC is likely to decide on fielding senior leader and MLA Kadiyam Srihari or his daughter Kadiyam Kavya from Warangal (SC) reserved seat. The BRS leaders on Sunday joined the Congress party. The BRS had already named Kavya as its candidate from Warangal but last on March 28 she withdrew from the contest. The next day Congress leaders invited Srihari and his daughter to join the party.

Interestingly, sitting MP from Warangal Pasunuri Dayakar of BRS had joined Congress after BRS named Kavya as its candidate. Dayakar is also an aspirant for the party ticket.

The aspirants for Karimnagar ticket include Teenmaar Mallanna, A. Praveen Reddy and Rajender Rao.

R. Raghurami Reddy is considered a front-runner for Khammam ticket. Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka’s wife Nandini and revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy’s brother Ponguleti Prasad Reddy are other strong contenders.

The Congress party had won three Lok Sabha seats in 2019.