Congress final list likely tomorrow

‘Delay is a strategy to keep TRS guessing on the names’

Consensus seems to have emerged on the candidates of the Congress for the ensuing Lok Sabha election, barring a few, and there may not be many surprises in the list that is likely to be released in two days (Friday).

The central screening committee that met on Tuesday night in New Delhi has come to an agreement on the names and most of the names that were circulating for several days were included after the District Congress Committees gave their suggestions.

Some seats had almost single names and they were apparently cleared by the screening committee. These include Ponnam Prabhakar (Karimnagar), Anjan Kumar Yadav (Secunderabad), and Konda Vishweshwer Reddy (Chevella) among others. TPCC working president A. Revanth Reddy’s name is being considered for Malkajgiri constituency while the name of Madan Mohan Rao, son-in-law of Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao, is being floated for Zaheerabad constituency.

AICC Secretary Madhu Yashki Goud has been reportedly asked by the party to contest from Nizamabad that he represented twice in the Lok Sabha. His efforts to move to Bhongir or some other seat may not send right signals to the cadre and it was almost admitting defeat, the screening committee apparently felt.

An interesting development is that the party is trying to rope in former Khammam MP and Telugu Desham Party (TDP) leader Nama Nageshwar Rao for the Khammam seat. Mr. Rao contested for the Khammam Assembly seat in the last election on the TDP ticket with Congress support. Though he lost the election, the Grand Alliance of Congress, TDP, CPI and TJS did well in the district.

TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka may visit New Delhi again on March 15 to oversee the induction of Mr. Nagehswar Rao into the party apart from finalising the candidates.

A new name is being proposed for the Bhongir constituency and former Minister, Komatireddy Venkatareddy is seeking Nalgonda ticket where Patel Ramesh Reddy is also in the race.

A senior party leader admitted that the delay was also a political strategy to keep the TRS guessing on the candidates. It is said that some candidates who are likely to be dropped by the TRS may want to join the Congress and the TRS is strategically delaying its list as well.