The Congress, on Thursday, November 10, released its final list of four candidates for the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections and replaced the candidate in the Patancheru constituency.
While senior leader and former minister Ramreddy Damodar Reddy has been fielded from Suryapet, the other candidates are Madula Samual (Thungathurthi-SC), Bathula Laxman Reddy (Miryalaguda), and Mohd Mujeeb Ullah Shareef (Charminar).
The party has changed the candidate in Patancheru, naming Katta Sreenivas Goud in place of Nilam Madhu Mudiraj who was included in the third list. The party decision evoked strong protest from the followers of Sreenvias Goud. Senior leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha had also raised an objection to the announcement of Mudiraj's candidature.
After the announcement of Mudiraj's name, supporters of Srinivas Goud had staged a protest at the party headquarters and also at the residence of Telangana Congress chief A Revanth Reddy on Tuesday. Mudiraj resigned from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) last month after the ruling party denied him an election ticket and once again, fielding sitting MLA G Mahipal Reddy.
Mudiraj joined the Congress on October 28, while Srinivas Goud had unsuccessfully contested on the Congress ticket in the 2018 election.
With the announcement of the final list, the Congress has declared candidates for 118 seats, leaving one seat (Kothagudem) for the CPI. Seat sharing agreement could not be reached between the Congress and the CPI-M as the latter insisted on the allotment of Wyra and Miryalaguda seats. Miffed with the Congress’ approach, the CPI-M decided to go alone and contest 24 seats.
Elections to the 119-member Assembly are scheduled on November 30.
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