The Congress party on Saturday has released its third list of 13 candidates for the assembly elections in Telangana. The last day of nominations closes on 19 November, Monday.
The Congress which will be contesting on 94 seats has named 88 candidates so far. Rest of the 25 seats is given to the partners of the ‘Maha Kutami’ (grand alliance).
The third list comprises one SC, three ST, three BC, three Muslims, and three Reddy community candidates.
The party is expected to announce its last six candidates by today evening.
Former Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president Ponnala Lakshmaiah, has got the place in the third list from Jangaon constituency apparently after some heavy lobbying for the ticket.
The seat was initially given to congress’ ally Telangana Jana Samithi’s president M Kodandaram, who had made the arrangements to file nominations and take up the campaign.
However, after the alleged intervention of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Kodandaram finally decided to drop out in favour of Lakshmaiah.
AICC general secretary in-charge of Telangana R C Khuntia, who had lengthy discussions with Kodandaram till late hours on Friday, said he would not be contesting from Jangaon. “Kodandaram sacrificed his seat for the former PCC chief”, he added.
Apart from Ponnala Lakshmaiah, another former minister Soyam Bapu Rao, former MLA D Sudhir Reddy and PCC spokesperson Addanki Dayakar are have also got the ticket.
According to sources, Kodandaram has now decided to stay away from contesting from some other constituency and would rather stick to campaigning.
Meanwhile, the BJP also announced its fourth list of seven candidates for the Telangana elections. Till now, BJP announced the list for 93 segments out of the 119. The first list consists of 38 candidates and 28 candidates were added to the second list and 20 in the third list.