T’gana: BJP begins receiving applications from ticket aspirants

Hyderabad: The BJP in Telangana on Monday started receiving applications from the aspirants for the party tickets to contest the upcoming Assembly elections while the Congress’ Screening Committee began a three-day meeting to finalise the candidates.

Hectic activity was seen at the BJP state headquarters in Hyderabad as aspirants from various parts of the state submitted their applications. On the first day, 182 aspirants submitted their applications for tickets from various constituencies.

Hari Prasad Goud was the first to submit his application for Secunderabad Assembly constituency. Another Tula Uma applied for a ticket from Vemulawada.

BJP state general secretary Premender Reddy said applications from aspirants will be received till September 10.

The saffron party is likely to announce the first list of candidates after September 15.

Elections to the 119-member Assembly are slated to be held in November-December this year.

Ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has taken a lead over others by declaring candidates for 115 seats.

The Congress party has also received applications from aspirants. More than 1,000 leaders applied for the party tickets.

Pradesh Election Committee (PEC) headed by state Congress chief A. Revanth Reddy met twice to scrutinise the applications and shortlist the potential candidates.

The Screening Committee headed by K. Muralidharan on Monday began holding meetings with PEC members to elicit their opinion about the applicants.

Muralidharan, members Jignesh Mevani and Baba Siddiqui met PEC members separately. They will hold meetings with several senior leaders over the next two days.

The Screening Committee will finalise the list and send it to the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) for approval.