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Lok Sabha polls 2019: Lacking right candidates, Congress fields Telangana unit chief Uttam Reddy, 2 seniors
The Congress announced the second list of eight candidates for the Lok Sabha elections from Telangana late on Monday night. In the first list released last Friday, the party had announced eight names as well.
The Congress in Telangana, which has been struggling to find the right candidates to fight the ruling TRS in the April 11 Lok Sabha elections, has fielded party’s state unit president N Uttam Kumar Reddy from Nalgonda.
The Congress announced the second list of eight candidates for the Lok Sabha elections from Telangana late on Monday night. In the first list released last Friday, the party had announced eight names as well.
With this, the Congress has cleared the names of 16 candidates for the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana. The announcement of a candidate for Khammam parliamentary constituency, the only seat for which there is a tough competition in the party, has been kept in abeyance.
Former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin, who was tipped for the Hyderabad parliamentary constituency to fight against Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) president Asaduddin Owaisi, did not figure in the list.
According to a senior party leader familiar with the development, Uttam Kumar Reddy’s name was a surprising choice for Nalgonda seat as he is already an MLA. Reddy had won the recent assembly elections from Huzurnagar constituency with a slender margin of over 7,000 votes.
“He was reluctant to contest the Lok Sabha elections as he felt his presence in the assembly is very much essential at a time when the party MLAs have been defecting to the TRS one after the other,” the Congress leader said.
“Secondly, he is the only Congress MLA in the entire Nalgonda parliamentary constituency and hence it is very difficult to win the Lok Sabha seat,” the leader said.
In both its lists, the Congress does not have any sitting member of Parliament except Konda Vishweshwar Reddy from Chevella, who defected from the rulingTelangana Rashtra Samithi before the recent assembly elections.
The only sitting MP from Nagarkurnool Nandi Yellaiah was denied the ticket this time.
However, the Congress has retained a few candidates who lost the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Madhu Yashki Goud from Nizamabad, Anjan Kumar Yadav from Secunderabad, Ramesh Rathod from Adilabad, P Balram Naik from Mahabubabad and Ponnam Prabhakar from Karimnagar are among them.
Since the Congress could not find suitable candidates for many seats, it has compelled some of the party leaders who lost the assembly elections to contest the Lok Sabha polls. They include PCC working president A Revanth Reddy from Malkajgiri, Vamsichander Reddy from Mahbubnagar, Mallu Ravi from Nagarkurnool, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy from Bhongir and A Chandrasekhar from Peddapalli. Even ex-MPs Ponnam Prabhakar and Balram Naik unsuccessfully contested the assembly elections.
Former MLA Dommati Sambaiah was given the ticket from Warangal (SC) constituency, while first-timers Firoz Khan, Gali Anil Kumar and Madan Mohan are being fielded from Hyderabad, Medak and Zaheerabad respectively.
