45 Names in Congress 2nd List for Polls, Final List by November 2

HYDERABAD: The Congress on Friday released its second list of 45 candidates for the November 30 Telangana Assembly polls. With this, the Congress announced 100 candidates out of a total 119 constituencies so far.

The third list for the remaining 19 seats is expected by November 2. The party had announced the first list of 55 candidates on October 15.

The second list has eight BC candidates, 22 from the Reddy community, three from the Kamma community, one from the Brahmin community and the remaining are the SC and ST groups.

The Congress continued the suspense over who will take on Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao in Kamareddy and IT minister K.T. Rama Rao in Sircilla. There is speculation that the party may field TPCC chief A. Revanth Reddy in Kamareddy along with Kodangal, from where Revanth Reddy's candidature was already announced in the first list.

The Congress is keeping Nizamabad Urban seat pending; Shabbir Ali is expected to be fielded in the place of his home constituency Kamareddy. This further fuelled speculation that Revanth Reddy may be fielded from Kamareddy.

Poojala Harikrishna was pitted against minister T. Harish Rao in Siddipet constituency. Former MLA Kicchanagari Laxma Reddy has been pitted against minister Sabitha Indra Reddy from Maheshwaram.

Prominent leaders from the BRS and the BJP who joined the Congress recently got tickets in the second list: Tummala Nageshara Rao from Khammam, Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy from Palair, Revuri Prakash Reddy from Parkal, Buyyani Manohar Reddy from Tandur, Payam Venkateswarlu from Pinapaka and  V. Jagadeeshwar Goud from Serilingampally.

Former cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin was fielded from Jubilee Hills, while Khairatabad District Congress Committee president C. Rohin Reddy has been given the Amberpet ticket.

Late Congress leader P. Janardhan Reddy's daughter P. Vijaya Reddy, who joined the Congress from the BRS, got a ticket from Khairatabad while his son P. Vishnuvardhan Reddy was denied a ticket from Jubilee Hills.

Congress leader Cheruku Srinivas Reddy, who lost Dubbak bypoll in 2020, was retained from the same seat. Former minister G.Chinna Reddy, who lost in 2018, has been retained from Wanaparthy. Kumbam Anil Kumar Reddy, who joined the BRS a few months ago only to come back, will contest from Bhongir.

Konda Surekha will contest from Warangal East. Naini Rajender Reddy, Congress loyalist who sacrificed his seat for the alliance partner in 2018,  got the Warangal West ticket.

Kommuri Pratap Reddy would contest from Jangaon, where former PCC president Ponnala Lakshmaiah sought the party ticket. Lakshmaiah joined the BRS recently after he got indications that he would be denied the Congress ticket.

The Congress is expected to release its third list of 15 candidates, while allotting two seats each to CPI and CPM after a consensus is reached on which four seats to be allotted to Left parties.