Congress declares candidates for 4 LS seats in Telangana, keeps 4 pending

Hyderabad: The Congress high command on Wednesday declared candidates for four more Lok Sabha constituencies and kept the other four constituencies pending. It named MLC T .Jeevan Reddy as candidate for Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat, Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy for Bhongir, Neelam Madhu for Medak and Dr Suguna Kumari Chelimala for Adialbad (ST) seats in the third list of candidates declared for Telangana.

The party high command kept the candidates pending for Khammam, Hyderabad, Warangal and Karimnagar Lok Sabha seats.

The AICC's central election committee (CEC) met in Delhi on Wednesday to finalise the candidates for all the remaining eight Lok Sabha constituencies but could not complete the task due to lack of consensus in the meeting on selection of candidates. The CEC will meet again on March 31 to finalise the candidates for the remaining four Lok Sabha constituencies.

TPCC chief and Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, Deputy CM Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and minister N.Uttam Kumar Reddy attended the CEC meeting.

According to sources, Revanth Reddy, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Uttam Kumar Reddy requested party high command to field Priyanka Gandhi from Khammam since selection of candidate for Khammam Lok Sabha seat has become a bone of contention among senior leaders.

Bhatti Vikramarka is seeking the Khammam Lok Sabha ticket for his wife Nandini, while revenue minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy is seeking the same for his brother Ponguleti Prasad Reddy.

Revanth Reddy insisted on the Bhongir Lok Sabha ticket for Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy while Komatireddy brothers are also seeking the same for Laxmi, the wife of Munugode MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy. But the CEC meeting decided in favour of Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy. Speculations were also rife that former tennis star Sania Mirza is also seeking a ticket from the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat.

The CEC will discuss all these issues in its next meeting on March 31 and finalise the candidates for the pending four Lok Sabha seats.

The Congress high command has so far declared candidates for nine Lok Sabha constituencies out of total 17 in two phases. In the first phase on March 8, it declared candidates for four Lok Sabha seats, which included Nalgonda (Kunduru Raghuveer Reddy), Mahabubnagar (Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy), Zahirabad (Suresh Shetkar) and Mahabubabad (P. Balram Naik).

In the second phase on March 21, it declared candidates for another five Lok Sabha seats, which included Peddapalli (Gaddam Vamshi Krishna), Malkajgiri (Sunitha Mahender Reddy), Secunderabad (Danam Nagender), Nagarkurnool (Mallu Ravi) and Chevella (Gaddam Ranjith Reddy).