Telangana Congress sets ball rolling on ticket finalisation; 38 aspirants in Illendu, just 1 each in Kodangal, Jagtial

Sources told South First that the differences were over a proposal that not more than one person in a family should be given a ticket, and Uttam Kumar Reddy left the meeting in a huff.

Telangana polls: KCR announces BRS candidates for 115 of 119 seats

1,009 applications for 119 seats

The Congress, implementing the Karnataka model in approaching the elections, received 1,009 applications for the 119 seats which on average is about eight applications per seat.

General candidates had to pay ₹50,000 as application fee, while the fee for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Backward Classes (BCs) was ₹25,000.

The maximum number of applications — a whopping 38 — was received for the Illendu constituency, while the Kodangal and Jagtial segments had only one application each.

The Pradesh Election Committee (PEC), which has 29 members, went through the applications received by the party at the meeting presided over by Revanth Reddy.

According to Mahesh Kumar Goud, PCC vice president, the first list would comprise mainly SCs, STs, and BCs.

After the meeting, Bhongir MP Komatireddy Venkata Reddy told media-persons that there would be no shortlisting of candidates to three for each segment as had been thought earlier.

“I told the PEC that it would be better if all the applications were presented before the Screening Committee which will meet on 4 September. It would be better if shortlisting is done in the presence of the Screening Committee members,” he said.

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‘BC will get their fair share’

Venkata Reddy said that, unlike KCR, the Congress would allot the BCs a fair share of the tickets.

While BCs comprise about 50 percent of Telangana’s population, the BRS has allotted the community only 22 tickets in the list announced by KCR.

“I want the new initiative to begin from Nalgonda district,” Venkata Reddy said, adding that he would not bother even if the Nalgonda Assembly seat — his home constituency — is allotted to a BC. He also stressed that this time the process of candidate selection would not be unnecessarily prolonged.

“We want to announce the list of the candidates as early as possible,” he said when asked when the announcement of candidates would be done in the wake of the BRS releasing its list already.

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Next steps

Mahesh Kumar Goud said that, at the PEC meeting, all members went through the applications and the documents appended to them which have details of how long they were in the party, the party activities in which they had taken part, participation in protests against the anti-people policies of the government, and so on.

The Political Affairs Committee (PAC) of the state unit of the Congress will now vet the list on 2 September, before submitting it to Screening Committee on 4 September.

Screening Committee chairman and MP K Muraleedharan, members Baba Siddique and Jignesh Mevani, will arrive in Hyderabad for the meeting.

Ex-officio members of the committee — Revanth Reddy, Uttam Kumar Reddy, Congress Legislature Party leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, and state in-charge Manikrao Thakre — will also attend the meeting.

The Screening Committee members will camp for three days in Hyderabad and prepare reports on the approach to be taken for the Assembly elections.

The PEC also decided to request AICC president Mallikajun Kharge to organise a meeting of the Congress Working Committee — the party’s highest decision-making body — in Hyderabad.