Congress treads cautiously ahead of announcing 2nd list

Hyderabad: The Congress party’s screening committee for Telangana held serious deliberations at AICC general secretary K C Venugopal’s residence in Delhi on Saturday. Led by K Muralidharan, the chairman of committee, the meeting was also attended by top leaders including PCC chief A Revanth Reddy, MP N Uttam Kumar Reddy and CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka from the State.

In the wake of the earlier release of the list of 55 candidates for the Assembly elections, the latest deliberations were on the way to not only finalise the seats for Left parties which are part of the coalition but also towards minimising the dissent.

The discussion continued on for 64 remaining seats of which two each will go to CPI and CPM. They are likely to get Miryalguda, Vyra, Kothagudem, beside another seat, where their party cadre are strong.

According to sources, given the trouble the party is sensing from the dissenting voices following the announcement of the first list, the leadership is treading cautiously this time. The State leadership which received over 1,000 applications from the aspirants is already feeling the heat in the form of protests from those who did not get tickets.

The Gadwal and Bahadurpura aspirants who resorted to protests have already received suspension notices from the party’s DAC (Disciplinary Action Committee). PCC secretary K Vijay Kumar who was aspiring to get Gadwal seat and Baba Kaleemuddin from Bahadurpura also made strong allegations against Revanth Reddy.

The nominees from the first list are working overtime to convince the dissenting and sulking leaders in their constituencies, thereby exhausting their energies on roping the leaders considered to be important or those who are likely to cross their paths as the election date nears increasing the possibility of denting their prospects.

It is being said that the 2nd list will be released within a couple days after the party’s CEC (Central Election Committee) gives its approval. In the wake of Rahul Gandhi’s pitch for caste census and questioning of OBC’s allocations and job share, the party is likely to reflect on the Udaipur declaration in the next list.

With the BJP announcing that it would be giving maximum tickets to BCs in the State, the leadership is now forced to choose between the BCs and the newly- joined leaders mostly from the Reddy community from some of the important constituencies.