Cong list for T announced

• 16 LS and a few MLA candidates cleared
• Party cuts short briefing after call from Ahmad Patel
• Jaipal gets Mahabubnagar despite DK’s opposition
• Vijaya Shanti doesn’t figure in LS list; MLA ticket likely

New Delhi/Hyderabad: The Congress High Command on Saturday night chose to release the list of Congress list for the Assembly and the Parliament seats in Telangana, but in a dramatic turn of events, the party chose to hold back the list to make further changes in the list.

The list was due for release at 9 pm and later it was rescheduled for 10 pm. Finally, AICC spokesman Randeep Surjewala announced that Congress president Sonia Gandhi has cleared 16 of the 17 Lok Sabha seats and 110 Assembly seats in Telangana. The twist came when the press conference was going on, Congress president’s political secretary Ahmed Patel called up AICC Media Department Secretary Tom Vadakkan and conveyed to him to cut short the press conference. Hurriedly, Surjewala announced that the rest of the list would be emailed to the scribes and concluded the press conference.

According to sources, the Congress High Command is still struggling to make some important changes in the list. Film star Vijaya Shanti, a sitting MP, has not got Lok Sabha ticket and she is to be given an Assembly ticket. Similar changes are still to be made before the list is made public by the Congress High Command.

A list of 16 candidates for Lok Sabha has, however, been declared, along with a few names of prominent leaders for the Assembly election.

Three sitting union ministers S Jaipal Reddy, Sarve Satyanarayana and T Balaram Naik have been retained. While Jaipal Reddy who is at present representing Chevella constituency will contest from Mahabubnagar, Sarve Satyanarayana will seek re-election from Malkajgiri (SC) and T Balaram Naik from Mahbubabad (ST).

The other prominent Lok Sabha candidates are G Vivek (Peddapalli- SC reserved), Dr Naresh Jadhav (Adilabad , ST reserved), P Prabhakar (Karimnagar), Madhu Yashki (Nizamabad), Dr Sravan Kumar Reddy (Medak), Anjan Kumar Yadav (Secunderabad), Sama Kishan Reddy ( Hyderabad), P Karthik Reddy (Chevella), Nandi Yallaiah (Nagarkurnool- SC reserved), G Sukhendar Reddy (Nalgonda), S Rajaiah (Warangal- SC reserved), K Rajgopal Reddy (Bhongir) and Suresh Shetkar (Zaheerabad). Nandi Yellaiah will contest against Manda Jaganatham of TRS.

Assembly candidates whose names are announced are: Telangana PCC president P Lakshmaiah (Jangaon), party working president N Uttam Kumar Reddy (Huzurnagar), C Damodar Rajanarasimha (Andhole) and M Bhatti Vikramarka (Madhira).

The AICC has decided to accommodate Telangana JAC leaders like Gajjela Kantham and Addanki Dayakar and Krishank and Daruvu Ellanna from OU JAC in the list of Assembly candidates.

Of the 110 Assembly candidates, 47 are from general category which forms 43% of the 110 seats. Five are from minority, 20 belong to SC category which is 18% of the 110 seats, 9 ST seats and 29 BC candidates which equals 26% of 110 seats.

However, even while the AICC spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala was announcing the names, Ahmed Patel, the political secretary to Sonia Gandhi, called up Surjewala and asked him not to release the list of remaining names as the some changes were to be made to the list. Following this, the AICC sources told media they were unable to mail the list as the server was down.

It is said that the party high command was yet to take a decision on giving seats to Padmavathy wife of TPCC working president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, former home minister Sabitha Indra Reddy, Shankar Rao etc. However, other former ministers like K Jana Reddy, Ram Reddy Venkat Reddy, J Geeta Reddy, D K Aruna etc will be retained.

The Congress is yet to decide on nine Assembly and one Lok Sabha (Khammam) seat. Decision on these seats will be taken after the seat sharing with CPI is finalised.