A majority of the Congress leaders in the State want the All India Congress Committee to declare APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy as the party’s Chief Minister candidate ahead of the next Assembly elections.
Party leaders expressed the desire at a workshop organised on Tuesday to finalise the roadmap ahead of the elections. Party leaders were relieved when they were told that the AICC had made it clear that the Congress would field its candidates in all the 175 Assembly constituencies in the State. The announcement was being seen as an indication that the party leadership was not keen on having a tie-up with the YSR Congress. “Leaders and workers have been in a big dilemma on whether the party will contest alone or have an alliance with the YSR Congress. Now that confusion has been cleared,” said a senior leader. The leaders also felt that the party’s election manifesto should be prepared well in advance so as to take it to the people. The leadership was also urged to make public the names of candidates well in advance to allow them to begin work early. Offering tickets on the population basis and then enacting a law to make it mandatory to give weaker sections reservations on the population basis was suggested.
