Karimnagar Congress leaders fear losing out to those from other parties

 KARIMNAGAR: Several Congress leaders, who have been continuously working in Karimnagar assembly segment, fear losing out to leaders of other parties in allotment of ticket to contest the forthcoming election from their constituency.

Leaders, like City Congress President K. Narendar Reddy, DCC women wing president Sathya Prasanna Reddy, Meneni Rohit Rao, grandson of the former minister M. Satyanarayana, Rahul, Padmakar Reddy, Md. Samaad, Mahesh, Anjan Kumar and Rehamat Hussain, have been with the party for long. Having taken up several programmes for the party, they are hoping to get the Congress ticket to contest the upcoming elections. They have also submitted their application forms at Gandhi Bhavan.

But their hopes have dwindled with many key leaders from other parties showing interest in joining Congress, provided they get the party ticket to contest from the Karimnagar seat.

Mytri Group chairman Kothapally Jayapal Reddy, who has a strong influence in the Karimnagar segment joined Congress on Thursday with a large number of his supporters in presence of TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy in Hyderabad, hoping for the ticket from Karimnagar.

With the same intent, Regulapati Ramya Rao, daughter of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s brother, who joined Congress along with her son, has applied for the MLA ticket from Karimnagar.

Another key leader who is about to join Congress is former MLC T. Santosh Kumar, who has recently resigned from BRS party. Santosh Kumar has a strong base within BC and minority communities. He has also served as DCC president and is hoping to contest from Karimnagar on behalf of Congress.

Local Karimnagar leaders had hoped that they will stand a good chance this time in securing the Congress ticket, as former MP Ponnam Prabhakar, who continuously contested for assembly and parliament seats from 2009 to 2018, has opted to contest from Husnabad assembly segment, where BCs including Goud community to which he belongs, are in large numbers.

However, they now fear that others joining the Congress would upset their plans for securing the Congress ticket from Karimnagar.