LS Polls: Congress fields Kadiyam Kavya from Warangal in Telangana

Hyderabad, April 1: The Congress on Monday announced Kadiyam Kavya as its party candidate for the Warangal Lok Sabha seat in Telangana.

The Central Election Committee of the party, which met in Delhi, selected Kavya as the candidate.

The announcement came a day after Kavya along with her father and senior leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), Kadiyam Srihari, joined the Congress.

The BRS had earlier named Kavya as its candidate for Warangal, which is a reserved seat for the Scheduled Castes.

She, however, announced her decision to opt out of the contest on March 28.

Kavya wrote to BRS chief K. Chandrashekar Rao that the allegations of corruption, encroachments, phone-tapping, and liquor scam against party leaders have damaged the party's image.

She also mentioned that a lack of coordination and cooperation among the BRS leaders in the district caused more damage to the party.

The next day, AICC in-charge for Telangana, Deepa Dasmunshi, and other leaders met Srihari and his daughter and invited them to join the Congress.

On March 31, the father-daughter duo joined the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.

With this, the Congress has announced candidates for 14 out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in the southern state.

The party is yet to announce candidates for Khammam, Karimnagar, and Hyderabad constituencies.

Revanth Reddy and Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka along with Deepa Dasmunshi attended the party’s Central Election Committee meeting in Delhi on Monday.

The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) has already requested the central leadership of the party to field AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi from Khammam. The party's high command has not responded yet.

The state election committee of the party has cleared the candidates for the three seats and submitted the same to CEC for a final nod.