Hyderabad: The Congress is likely to release its second list of candidates, comprising 35-45 names, for the Telangana state Assembly polls on Friday, after its central election committee, led by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, holds a meeting to finalise the same.
Former MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, who quit the BJP on Thursday, will also join the Congress on Friday. He is seeking a ticket from Munugode and also expressed his willingness to contest against Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao in Gajwel, along with Munugode.
The Congress declared its first list, of 55 candidates, on October 15, after which the screening committee, led by MP K. Muraleedharan, met several times at the residence of AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal in Delhi to finalise the second list of candidates. The screening committee meetings were attended by TPCC chief A. Revanth Reddy, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy.
The top three leaders also attended the CEC meetings, starting last Wednesday, and reviewed the names of candidates shortlisted by the screening committee. It was learnt that the CEC was not happy with the candidates selected by the screening committee and referred it back for further scrutiny.
The screening committee reworked the list again on Thursday and referred it to the CEC, which will meet on Friday, due to prior engagements of Sonia Gandhi on Thursday.
Party sources said that the second list will be out on Friday and the third and final list will be released by November 2, following which the process of filing nominations for the Assembly polls will commence on November 3.
A consensus is yet to be reached on the two seats each to be allotted to CPI and CPM and a final decision on this issue is also likely to be taken in the CEC meeting on Friday.
