Congress successful in winning over most rebels across Telangana

Hyderabad: As the deadline for withdrawal of nominations came to an end on November 15, the Congress’s leadership, which held talks with the rebel candidates, was successful in pursuing most of them to withdraw their nominations.

Following talks with the rebels by top leaders, including AICC (TS), Incharge Manikrao Thakre besides AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, most of them yielded, including Patel Ramesh Reddy from Suryapet who fielded himself from All India Forward Bloc.

While others, including Bala Raju (Banswada), S Gangaram (Jukkal), Nehru Naik (Dornakal), Janga Raghava Reddy (Warangala (W)), D Ram Reddy (Ibrahimpatnam) were amongst those who withdrew. While in some constituencies, the problem persisted including in Adilabad, where Sanjeev Reddy has the backing of some important local leaders, including Sajid Khan and Gandra Sujatha.

In Suryapet, a high drama ensued after party leaders, including AICC secretary Rohit Chaudhary, along with PCC senior vice president, Mallu Ravi, visited Ramesh Reddy’s residence to persuade him to withdraw the nomination. Upon the arrival of the leaders from Hyderabad, the leader who had already begun campaigning as Forward Bloc candidate was not ready to listen and even begged their pardon by bowing to them. The family, which was terribly upset over the party’s decision to allot a ticket to another leader once again, got emotional. The leaders also faced the ire of his supporters, who questioned them upon their visit. They also raised slogans against Nalgonda MP, N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Ramreddy Damodar Reddy who got the ticket. Ramesh Reddy was only convinced after hours of persuasion and after promise of a MP ticket from Nalgonda position in future.

A video of Ramesh Reddy and his family members shedding tears over the denial of a ticket by the Congress went viral last week after the party decided to give ticket to Ramreddy Damodar Reddy.