The Congress on Friday, October 27 released its second list of 45 candidates for the upcoming November 30 Assembly elections. The list, which was delayed a little, also featured the name of ex-MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy who left the BJP and rejoined Congress formally on the same day. He will be contesting from Munugode constituency in the Assembly seat, which he had lost to the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in a by-election last year.
The Congress is also currently in talks with the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), and seat sharing with both are likely to be finalised soon. So far, the Congress has announced 100 seats which doesn’t account for the remaining 19 seats in the poll bound state. Former BRS MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy will contest from the Palair constituency. The previous Palair MLA from Congress Upender Reddy defected to BRS in 2019. It was also earlier speculated that YSRTP chief YS Sharmila was likely to contest from Palair on a Congress ticket. Srinivas Reddy will now be taking on Sharmila.
The Congress candidate for the Khammam seat is Tummala Nageshwar Rao who also quit BRS and joined the party in August 2023. Former cricketer and Congress leader Mohammed Azharuddin will contest from Jubilee Hills while deceased revolutionary poet Gaddar’s daughter GV Venella is the party’s candidate from Secunderabad Cantonment.
After his suspension from the Telangana unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), state vice president Yennam Srinivas Reddy joined the Congress and will be contesting from his home turf of Mahabubnagar. After quitting Telangana Congress to join the BRS, Kumbam Anil Kumar Reddy was welcomed back to the Congress fold in September 2023. He has been allotted the ticket for the Bhongir constituency.
Vodithala Pranav marks his political entry into politics and is set to contest from Huzurabad constituency. He is the grandson of Vodithala Rajeshwar Rao and the family has close ties with Chief Minister KCR. Vodithala Satish Kumar is the BRS MLA from Husnabad and Lakshmikanth Rao served as former Huzurabad BRS MLA..
Ajmera Shyam was allocated Asifabad ticket. He is the husband of Rekha Naik, former BRS MLA from Khanapur (ST) constituency. Ajmera Shayam joined Congress after Rekha Naik was denied ticket by the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in August this year.
Kommuri Pratap Reddy was allocated Janagaon ticket after senior leader and former Minister Ponnala Laxmaiah from the constituency tendered his resignation citing injustice to leaders from Backward Class caste.
Four women have been allotted tickets from the Congress in the party’s second list including GV Venella. P Vijaya Reddy will contest from Khairatabad, Konda Surekha from Warangal East and Yeshashwani Memidila from Palakurthi. Including Kota Neelima (Sanathnagar), Mogili Sunitha (Goshamahal), Saritha Thirupathaiah (Gadwal), Padmavathi Reddy (Kodad), Singapuram Indira (Ghanpur) and Seethakka (Mulugu), the Congress party has so far fielded 10 female candidates.
While Azharuddin is the sole Muslim candidate in the second list, the Congress is also fielding Shaik Akbar (Malakpet), Mohammed Feroz Khan (Nampally) and Osman bin Mohammed (Karwan), taking the total Muslim candidates to four currently.