The Congress may have a tough time selecting candidates for Tiruvuru, Jaggaiahpet, Avanigadda, Gudiwada, Gannavaram and Machilipatnam Assembly constituencies in Krishna district.
The first list of candidates is expected to be released on Saturday evening. While there seems to be ample number of aspirants, most are not known either to the public or even in party circles.
Vijayawada Central and West MLAs, Malladi Vishnu and Vellampalli Srinivas, seem to be still surrounded in a thick blanket of speculation as to whether they will continue in the party. Whether former Minister and sitting Penamaluru MLA Kolusu Parthasarathy is interested in contesting is a closely guarded secret. It has been a while since Mr. Parthasarathy was seen in his constituency.
The future course of action of another sitting Congress MLA, Dirisam Padma Jyothi, is uncertain. She has made conflicting announcements about her continuation in the party.
Two sitting Congress MLAs, Perni Venkataramaiah and Jogi Ramesh, have quit the Congress and joined the YSRC.
From over a dozen MLAs in 2004, the number of Congress legislators fell to half a dozen in 2009, with the Telugu Desam grabbing four seats and the Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) claiming two more. Sitting Vijayawada East MLA Yalamanchilli Ravi joined the Congress when the PRP merged with it, but left it recently to join the TDP.
“We are prepared for any last moment changes in these constituencies, and there is no dearth of aspirants to choose from in any of the constituencies in the district,” said a senior Congress leader involved in the selection of candidates.
Sitting Congress MLA D.Y. Das is, however, aspiring for a ticket to contest from the Pamarru constituency. The names of former Deputy Speaker B. Vedavyas, former Congress candidates for Assembly elections Velupula Parameswara Rao (Nandigama) and Appasani Sandeep (Mylavaram) are likely to find place on the list of aspirants.
DCC president Naraharasetti Narasimha Rao is on the list of aspirants for the Kakikalur constituency. Youth Congress leader Rajeev Ratna is an aspirant for the Tiruvuru Constituency.