The Congress has plunged into election mode in Telangana as it released the first list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections. The state is witnessing a three-way contest this time with the BJP in the fray.
The Congress, hoping to wrest power from the ruling BRS led by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, kept the momentum going with the release of the much-anticipated first list of candidates on Sunday. The list includes over 24 defectors and three MPs.
While Telangana PCC president Revanth Reddy will contest from the Kodangal assembly seat, CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu has been fielded from the Madhira-SC seat. T Jeevan Reddy and Duddilla Sridhar Babu are other prominent names.
TPCC general secretary Adam Santhosh Kumar will contest from Secundrabad. The party has also fielded its sitting Lok Sabha MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy from the Huzurnagar assembly constituency. He currently represents the Nalgonda Lok Sabha seat in Telangana. Besides, first-timer Kota Neelima, wife of national spokesperson Pawan Khera, has also been fielded from the Sanathnagar assembly seat.
Interestingly, it decided to go against the Udaipur declaration, which called for party tickets to only the family members of each leader. Both Uttam Kumar Reddy and his wife N Padmavathi Reddy have been given tickets.
It also made the exemption in sitting MLA Mynampally Hanumantha Rao's case, with Rao contesting from Malkajgiri and his son Mynampally Rohit in the fray from Medak Assembly constituency. Both Rao and his son are BRS defectors. Rao quit the party claiming he was "deeply disappointed and disillusioned with the lack of democracy and transparency in the party’s functioning."
Senior Congress leader Tumkunta Narasa Reddy will contest against BRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in Gajwel. However, Congress is yet to find a candidate for KCR’s second constituency Kamareddy. Party sources hint that former minister Mohammad Ali Shabbir will take on KCR at Kamareddy.
The first list also does not include candidates for Siricilla and Siddipet assembly constituencies, from where KCR’s son K T Rama Rao and nephew T Harish Rao, are in the fray.
BRS Manifesto
The BRS has set the ball rolling by announcing the launch of its campaign. BRS president and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao will announce the party's manifesto and launch his campaign on Sunday.
Rao will hold a meeting with the BRS MLA candidates at the party headquarters here and hand over the B-Forms (the form is proof that a particular candidate is put up by a political party in the election) to them, BRS sources told PTI.
He will also release the manifesto, which the party claims will shock the opposition parties in the state. KCR will also address a public meeting at Husnabad in Siddipet district which will mark the launch of his election campaign. The BRS had released candidates for 115 out of the total 119 assembly seats in August itself, taking advantage of a head start over the opposition BJP and Congress.
