Telangana Congress begins receiving applications from ticket aspirants

Hyderabad: Congress party in Telangana has started receiving applications from aspirants for tickets to contest coming Assembly elections.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A. Revanth Reddy announced that the applications will be received from Friday (August 18) to August 25.

Every day the applications will be received from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. He released the application form.

After receiving the applications and their scrutiny, the party will conduct a survey about the winning chances of the eligible aspirants.

The names of the applicants shortlisted by the state election committee will be sent to the screening committee. The screening committee will analyse the list and after filtering send the selected names to the party’s central election committee.

If the central election committee is also unable to decide on the candidates, the names will be forwarded to Congress Working Committee (CWC) for final decision.

Revanth Redy said Pradesh Congress Committee president and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) will also have to submit the applications.

The application fee has been fixed at Rs.50,000. However, for the applicants from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the application fee is Rs.25,000.

Replying to a query, the TPCC chief said the electoral alliances will be decided by the party’s central leadership.

The Congress party early this month constituted a screening committee for Telangana. Headed by senior MP from Kerala K. Muralidharan, the team held its first meeting in Hyderabad on August 14. Two members of the screening committee – former Maharashtra MLA Baba Siddique and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mewani, also attended the meeting.

They held talks with Revanth Reddy, Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, AICC-in-charge of Telangana Manikrao Thakre, Lok Sabha member N. Uttak Kumar Reddy and AICC secretary-in-charge of the state, who are ex-officio members of the screening committee.

Last month, the Congress party formed a 26-member Election Committee for Telangana with state unit chief Revanth Reddy as its chairman.

The panel includes Bhatti Viktamarka Mallu, MLC Thatiparthi Jeevan Reddy, Bomma Mahesh Kumar Goud, Jagga Reddy, J. Geetha Reddy, cricketer-turned-politician and former MP Mohammad Azharuddin, V. Hanumantha Rao, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, MPs N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy.

Assembly elections in Telangana are due to be held in November-December this year.

In the previous elections held in 2018, the Congress party had won 18 seats in the 119-member Assembly. A few months after the polls, a dozen MLAs had defected to the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). Another MLA switched loyalties last year.