Huzurabad bypoll: Congress likely to field Konda Surekha

Hanumakonda: Putting all speculations to rest, the Congress is likely to field former Minister Konda Surekha in the by-election to the Huzurabad Assembly.

Unless something drastically goes wrong, Surekha will be bracing the electoral battle, thus making it an affair of the BCs.

The Congress thinktank is all but certain that the 55-year-old Surekha, a four-time MLA, would take on the might of BJP's Eatala Rajender and the ruling TRS candidate, Gellu Srinivas Yadav, sources say.

It's said that the Congress lost the luxury of going through too many options to zero in on its nominee ever since Padi Kaushik Reddy shifted his loyalty to the TRS. Although he lost twice to Eatala Rajender (then in TRS) from Huzurabad, Kaushik Reddy was able to emerge as a competent leader in the region.

Against this backdrop, the names of Konda Surekha and Dommati Sambaiah from erstwhile Warangal and Karimnagar DCC chief Kavvampally Satyanarayana have come under the scanner of the Congress leadership.

With both the TRS and the BJP banking on the BC card in the bypoll, the Congress leadership reportedly stuck to the same idea of fielding a candidate from the backward communities.

The leadership which pondered on selecting its nominee for Huzurabad bypoll in Hyderabad on Saturday reportedly finalised Konda Surekha's candidature, according to party sources. The TPCC president, A Revanth Reddy, is likely to announce Konda Surekha's candidature at the 'Dalit Girijana Atma Gourava Dandora' to be held in Ibrahimpatnam on August 18.

When The Hans India contacted, Konda Surekha said, "It's up to leadership to decide the candidate for Huzurabad bypoll. I am ready to obey the party's dictum without any hesitation."

Meanwhile, the Congress thinktank is of the opinion that Konda Surekha could muster the support of Padmashali community which she belongs to, apart from garnering the votes of her husband and former MLC Konda Murali's community, Munnuru Kapu. Together, the two communities have around 60,000 votes in the constituency.

It may be noted here that Padmashali is one of the dominant castes in Kamalapur, Huzurabad, Jammikunta and Veenavanka mandals, and is likely to give an edge to Konda Surekha, besides her popularity among the women voters.