Congress candidates for Telangana likely by Feb-end

Congress candidates for Telangana likely by Feb-end

Hyderabad: The Congress party may announce its candidates for the coming Lok Sabha elections by February-end, a senior party leader in Telangana said on Monday. Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, who is the leader of the opposition party in Telangana Assembly, told reporters that the state Congress committee has received large number of applications from those keen to contest the coming elections. He said the party's state unit will analyze the applications and make appropriate recommendations to the central leadership, which plans to finalise the candidates by month-end. He hopes that there will also be some clarity on poll alliance by the month-end. He said the central leadership would take a final decision in this regard. In the Assembly elections held in December last year, the Congress had an alliance with the Telugu Desam party (TDP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS). The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) retained the power winning 88 seats in 119-member Assembly. The Congress-led "Praja Kutami" or People's Alliance could get only 21 seats. It is still not clear if Congress will continue the alliance with the TDP and others for the Lok Sabha elections. Telangana has 17 Lok Sabha seats. In 2014, TRS had bagged 11 seats while the Congress onlty two. The remaining seats were shared by the TDP, BJP, AIMIM and the YSR Congress.

---