Congress announces final list of candidates for Telangana

Hyderabad, Nov 9:  The Congress on Thursday released its final list of four candidates for Telangana Assembly elections and replaced candidate in Patancheru constituency.

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 as the candidate in place of Nilam Madhu Mudiraj who was included in the third list. The party decision had evoked strong protest from followers of Sreenvias Goud.

Senior leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha 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 protest at the party headquarters and also at the residence of Telangana Congress chief A. Revanth Reddy on Tuesday.

Mudiraj had resigned from Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) last month after the ruling party denied him the ticket and once again fielded sitting MLA G. Mahipal Reddy.

Mudiraj joined the Congress on October 28. Srinivas Goud had unsuccessfully contested on 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 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.