Congress revives work on tickets, list likely next week

 Hyderabad: The Congress has speeded up the process of selection of candidates, with the AICC screening committee led by chairman K. Muraleedharan scheduled to meet in New Delhi on October 8.

This will be followed by the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on October 9 and central election committee meeting on October 10. Sources added that after CEC's approval, the Congress will release its list of candidates for Assembly polls anytime after October 10.

There are chances that the party might release the list of candidates for all seats in one go or in two or three phases depending on the consensus achieved on candidates in the CEC meeting.

Meanwhile, veteran leader K.Jana Reddy met AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi on Friday and reportedly sought two tickets for his sons from Nagarjunasagar and Miryalaguda and the Nalgonda Lok Sabha seat for himself.

Sources added that the AICC screening committee has recommended a single candidate for 60 constituencies. It has shortlisted two candidates each for 20 seats and three to four in the remaining 39 and ordered flash surveys to determine the winning prospects.

Meanwhile, the manifesto committee proposed to extend '1 lakh financial assistance to perform the marriage of girls coming from BPL families besides 10 grams of gold. The TPCC manifesto committee continues to hold meetings with various stakeholders at Gandhi Bhavan to draft party's manifesto for upcoming Assembly polls.

At present, the BRS government is extending financial assistance of Rs 1,00,016 under Kalyana Lakshmi/ Shaadi Mubarak schemes for BPL families. Manifesto committee chairman D.Sridhar Babu assured to include this in the draft manifesto.

The manifesto committee has already proposed to give free internet access to students across the state, free metro rail travel to students in Hyderabad on exam days, special schemes for the welfare of auto and cab drivers etc.