New Delhi: Almost 10 days after releasing the first list of candidates for Telangana Assembly polls, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday presided over a meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) to decide the rest of candidates for the 119-member Assembly elections.
Besides Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, party general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal, state in-charge Manik Rao Thakre, state unit chief A. Revanth Reddy, CLP Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu, Uttam Kumar Reddy and several others were also present.
The CEC meeting went on for over five hours.
According to party sources, candidates for at least 35 Assembly seats were discussed during the meeting.
The source said that there was a detailed discussion on the candidature of the BRS leaders who joined the Congress in the last few months.
The source further pointed out that the leadership had a detailed discussion to accommodate the BRS leaders and party leaders from those respective seats on the basis of winnability.
The Congress will hold another round of CEC meeting on Thursday to discuss the rest of 18 seats.
In a post on ‘X’, Kharge said: “Telangana is getting ready for change. Telangana shall elect Congress! Staring at an imminent defeat, BRS leaders are showing their abject frustration by continuously attacking the Congress party.
“BRS, BJP, AMIM — all partners in crime know the writing on the wall. They have nothing to show to the people of Telangana except lies, loot and commissions! Congress’ guarantees in Telangana and the tremendous affection which we share with the people of the state shall result in justice, welfare and progress. An important meeting of the Central Election Committee for Telangana happened today,” he added.
Party sources said that the rest of the candidates will be finalised at the meeting and in the coming days the leadership will release the second list of candidates.
On October 15, the Congress announced a list of 55 candidates for the Telangana Assembly polls, with Kota Neelima being fielded from Sanathanagar Assembly constituency, Jupally Krishna Rao from Kollapur, party’s CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu from Madhur SC reserved seat.
Polling for the Telangana Assembly elections will take place on November 30 and counting of votes will take place on December 3.
(IANS)
