Congress focus on BC, SC, ST candidates for Telangana first list

HYDERABAD: The TPCC election committee has decided to focus on giving tickets to candidates from the BC, SC and ST community candidates. It also decided to announce their names early to allow them more time to campaign.

The meeting also decided to write to AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge to hold the first meeting of the Congress Working Committee in Hyderabad.

The committee met at Gandhi Bhavan on Tuesday to vet the list of Congress aspirants who had applied for an Assembly poll nomination, said TPCC working president Mahesh Kumar Goud.

The party has received 1,006 applications for the 119 constituencies. The highest number of applications were received in Yellandu, while in Kodangal and Jagtial it received only one application.

The committee examined the association of the candidate with the party, joining date, the date when the application was made, programmes and anti-government programmes in which they participated. The details will again be discussed on September 2 in the political affairs committee, he said.

Screening committee chairman K. Muraleedharan, MP from Kerala, and members Baba Siddique, a former MLA in Maharashtra, and Jignesh Mevani, party MLA from Vadgam in Gujarat, will come to Hyderabad on September 4 for three days to hold discussions with stakeholders and prepare a report.

Later in the night, TPCC vice-president Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy said that a purported list of Congress candidates doing the rounds in some media circles was fake.