Congress bets on experience

Hyderabad: The Congress, which has been on cloud nine after its spectacular win in Karnataka, is now making all-out efforts to make a comeback in Telangana by unseating the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS).

After a detailed exercise, the grand old party on Sunday released the first list of 55 candidates.

As per the list, the Congress has fielded Tumkunta Narasa Reddy against BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao in Gajwel and is now searching for a candidate who can fight KCR in Kamareddy.

The Congress has accommodated three of those who had joined the party recently and rewarded almost all the old timers whom it considers to be the winning horses.

The new entrants are Jupally Krishna Rao who was a minister in Y S Rajasekhar Reddy’s Cabinet but later migrated to the BRS. He will contest from Kollapur. The other two new entrants are Mynampally Haunumantha Rao, who would contest from Malkajgiri in the city, while his son Rohit Rao will fight the polls from Medak.

The notable factor of the list is that it is dominated by Reddys. All the three MPs have been asked to contest the Assembly elections -- TPCC president A Revanth Reddy will contest from Kodangal, N Uttam Kumar Reddy from Huzurnagar, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy from Nalgonda.

Revanth was elected from Kodangal in 2009 and 2014 but lost to the BRS in 2018. Uttam Kumar Reddy vacated Huzurnagar after getting elected to the Lok Sabha and the BRS wrested the seat. Venkat Reddy had lost to the BRS in 2018.

Other notable candidates are Uttam’s wife N Padmavati, senior leaders like CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Damodara Raja Narasimha and incumbent MLAs Duddilla Sridhar Babu from Manthani, Danasari Anasuya (Seethakka) from Mulugu, Podem Veeraiah from Bhadrachalam and Thurpu Jagga Reddy from Sangareddy.

While Jana Reddy’s name did not figure in the list, his son Kunduru Jayaveer Reddy will contest from Nagarjunasagar in the place of his father. Senior Congress leaders and former ministers Dr J Geetha Reddy from Zahirabad (SC) and Nagam Janardhan Reddy from Nagarkurnool were denied the party ticket but the name of Mohd Shabbir Ali is still under consideration.

The names of Tummala Nageswara Rao and Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, who are eyeing to contest in the old Khammam district, would be announced in the second list as the Congress is in talks with the Left parties regarding the seat sharing. The two Left parties have been offered two seats each.