Cong’s 2nd list for LS polls put on hold, CEC to meet again today

Hyderabad: The announcement of a second list of Congress candidates for the Lok Sabha elections for Telangana has been put off again on Wednesday. Party sources said that the list would be announced on Thursday after the meeting of the AICC's central election committee (CEC) in Delhi.

Lack of consensus on the selection of candidates for Nagarkurnool, Secunderbad, Khammam, Warangal and Bhongir is said to be the reason for the delay in announcement of the second list.

The CEC discussed the second list for Telangana in its meeting held on Tuesday but consensus could not be reached for a majority of the 13 Lok Sabha seats for which the party is yet to name the candidates, sources added.

The party high command declared candidates for only four Lok Sabha constituencies in the first list on March 8. They included Nalgonda (Kunduru Raghuveer Reddy), Mahabubnagar (Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy), Zaheerabad (Suresh Shetkar) and Mahbubabad (P. Balram Naik).

After the CEC meeting on Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, who attended the meeting, told media personnel that the CEC discussed and finalised few candidates and the party high command will announce the second list on Wednesday. But it did not happen.

Due to lack of consensus on a few seats, the party high command has put the announcement of the second list on hold. It was decided to convene a CEC meeting again on Thursday.

The AICC will announce the second list for Telangana after the CEC meeting on Thursday along with the list of candidates of a few other states.

It is speculated that the CEC has finalised the candidature of G. Ranjith Reddy (Chevella), Patnam Sunitha Mahender Reddy (Malkajgiri), Mallu Ravi (Nagarkurnool), T. Jeevan Reddy (Nizamabad), Gaddam Vamshi Krishna (Peddapalli), Danam Nagender (Secunderabad) among others.