Race for LS tickets in Congress hots up

Hyderabad: The victory of the Congress in the recent Assembly elections catapulting it into the seat of power has led to high demand for tickets for the 17 Lok Sabha seats for which polls would be held sometime around April.

Several senior leaders and not so senior leaders are now vying for Congress tickets. The list of aspirants includes those who lost the Assembly elections. They include T Jagga Reddy from Medak, Mynampally Hanumantha Rao from Malkajgiri, S A Sampath Kumar from Nagarkurnool. Similarly, senior leader K Jana Reddy is also seeking party ticket either for himself or for his son K Raghuveera Reddy to contest from Nalgonda. Others in the race are PCC working president B Mahesh Kumar Goud, Nizamabad, AICC leader and former MLA Vamsi Chand Reddy from Mahbubnagar.

Former MPs V Hanumantha Rao and Renuka Chaudhury and Prasad Reddy (brother of Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy) are also aspirants for the Khammam LS constituency. Also, in the race from Karimnagar are two big names -- the student leader Balmoor Venkat and MLC T Jeevan Reddy.

The Congress party which is aiming for at least 15 MP seats wants that Sonia Gandhi should contest from the Medak Lok Sabha seat. This was the constituency from where former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had contested and won.It is said that there are many aspirants for two Lok Sabha seats. One is Nalgonda, which was represented by N Uttam Kumar Reddy, who has now been elected to the Assembly and had become a minister.

Similar is the case with the Bhongir Lok Sabha seat which was so far represented by Komatireddy Venkat Reddy. It is said that Komatireddy is trying for a ticket for his wife from Bhongir and Uttam was supporting Patel Ramesh Reddy from Nalgonda LS seat.

For Chevella constituency, Badangpet Mayor Ch Parijatha Narsimha Reddy and former Medchal MLA K Laxma Reddy are in the race.

Party sources said that Addanki Dayakar Rao, Sircilla Rajaiah and Sarvey Satyanarayana are also trying for Warangal seat. Balram Naik, Bellaiah Naik want to contest from Mahabubabad, Feroz Khan and Azharuddin are the aspirants for the Hyderabad seat. Gaddam Vamsi Krishna is keen on contesting from Peddapalli, while Naresh Jadav and Sevalal Rathod want to try their luck from Adilabad. Former MP Suresh Shetakar is lobbying for the Zaheerabad seat, while M Anil Kumar Yadav and Dr Vinay Kumar are in the race for the Secunderabad constituency.