Amidst strong protests from rebel candidates, the Telangana Congress released its second list on Wednesday naming 10 candidates, making it a total of 75 candidates so far. The first list was announced on Monday.
According to the list, Ramesh Rathod will contest from Khanapur, Congress spokesperson Sravan Dasoju from Khairtabad, Adluri Laxman Kumar from Dharmapuri, Kichannagari Laxma Reddy from Medchal, P Vishnuvardhan from Jubilee Hills, C Pratap Reddy from Shadnagar, Gandra Venkata Ramana Reddy from Bhupalapally and Kandala Upender Reddy from Palair.
Ramesh Rathod, a former MP, had recently joined the Congress after the TRS refused him a ticket from Adilabad. Ever since he joined the Congress, supporters of Azmeera Hari Naik have been disgruntled with the party. Naik’s supporters even protested at Gandhi Bhavan, the Congress party office, demanding a ticket for him. However, despite protests, the party high command approved the name of Rathod as contestant from Khanapur, an Adivasi dominated constituency.
The Congress has chosen to field KK Mahender Reddy against the TRS president’s son and IT Minister, KT Rama Rao, from Sircilla. In the 2009 election, Reddy had contested as an independent candidate and lost to KTR with a small margin of just 171 votes. The candidate contesting from Siddipet against T Harish Rao hasn’t been announced yet. Siddipet is a cidatel of the TRS, having been under the reign of the party since 1985. K Chandrasekhar Rao, the TRS president, has won six times consecutively from the Siddipet Assembly seat until 2004.
Meanwhile, Sravan Dasoju will contest against Danam Nagender, who had joined the TRS alleging that the BC community was neglected by the Congress. Though the TRS hasn’t announced its candidate from Khairtabad, party sources have confirmed that Nagender would be contesting from the seat.
The alliance party, TDP, has also announced its first list consisting of names of nine candidates. However, both the Telangana Jana Samithi and the Communist Party of India, who are part of the grand alliance, haven’t released their list yet.
Candidates have already started filing nominations from Monday. The last date for filing nominations is November 19. Telangana goes to the polls on December 7 and results will be declared on December 11.