Cong leaders lobby for party ticket

WARANGAL ls BY-ELECTION

Top party leaders join the race to win High Command favour

Hyderabad: With the Warangal by-election for Lok Sabha slated to be held in September or October, the leaders representing Scheduled Castes in the Congress party have begun lobbying for the party ticket to contest from the reserved Lok Sabha constituency. After Kadiyam Srihari’s resignation as MP, the Congress is making determined bid to regain its lost ground.

Amongst the top contenders, former MPs S Rajaiah, Sarve Satyanarayana, G Vivek, former Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raja Narsimha and local leaders Rajarapu Pratap, who had unsuccessfully contested against former Minister T Rajaiah from Station Ghanpur are vying with each other for the party ticket.

According to party sources, the TPCC has already sent a list of candidates with their resumes to the party high command. Even before the party has begun the exercise to shortlist the names, the local leaders have started insisting that only someone from the constituency should be fielded. They argue that prospects for the party candidate winning the election would diminish if outsider is given ticket to contest.

During a meeting of leaders drawn seven Assembly segments that make up Warangal Lok Sabha constituency at Gandhi Bhavan here on Tuesday, the TPCC had failed to include the names of some of those who were in-charge of Assembly constituencies in the list that was sent to the party high command.

Moreover the local leaders brought to the notice of the State leadership that the party activists were kept in dark over party activities. Some of them complained that there was no coordination between leaders.

By Md Nizamuddin