Congress Delays Second List in Wait for Senior Defectors, Left Alliance

Hyderabad: The Congress’ central election committee on Wednesday failed to reach a consensus on its second list of candidates, for 15-20 seats, for the upcoming Telangana polls, sources said. The Congress is yet to declare candidates for 60 seats, excluding four seats that it has offered to CPI and CPM as part of an alliance with Left parties for Assembly polls.

Party sources indicated that while consensus was reached on 40-45 seats, the rest were mired in uncertainty over a slew of reasons, ranging from multiple aspirants to expected defections from the BJP.

The party’s election committee will likely meet again on Thursday and release its second list, even if a few names remain to be decided, sources said.

The CEC Wednesday meeting was attended by AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, TPCC chief A. Revanth Reddy, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikaramarka and MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, among others.

Senior leader Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy quit the BJP on Wednesday and joined the Congress, stating he would contest from Munugode. In a similar vein, the Congress is expecting more senior leaders to join, which is delaying the release of the list.

Uncertainty over seats offered to the Left was also a problem. Sources said that while there is no disagreement over the allotment of Kothagudem and Chennur seats to the CPI, there was a lack of consensus on seats to be offered to the CPM.

The AICC screening committee, led by MP K. Muraleedharan, met again in Delhi late on Wednesday at the residence of general secretary K.C. Venugopal to reach a consensus on the 15 to 20 seats, and also on the seats to be offered to Left parties.

The CEC will meet again on Thursday to go through the list submitted by the screening committee and give its approval.