Union science and technology minister S Jaiapal Reddy wants to contest the Lok Sabha election from his native Mahbubnagar constituency and Telangana Congress president Ponnala Lakshmaiah from Bhongir. Apart from the two, there might not be any surprises in the Congress list which will be out by March 30.
The AICC leadership, during the two-day meeting of the Telangana Congress Screening Committee which began in the AICC War Room in Delhi on Saturday, dropped enough hints that it is in no mood to drop the sitting MLAs/MPs in Telangana. AICC state affairs in-charge Digvijaya Singh, who is heading the party’s screening committee for the state, AICC secretary Ramchandra Khuntia, Bhakta Charan Das and Union minister Vayalar Ravi also attended the meeting. Besides Union ministers from Telangana and party MPs from the region, TPCC chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah, working president N Uttam Kumar Reddy, D Srinivas, K Jana Reddy, C Damodara Rajanarasimha, J Geeta Reddy, DK Aruna and Youth Congress President Vamsi Chand Reddy were also present.
Interestingly, Jaipal Reddy is learnt to have proposed a switchover from Chevella to Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha constituency while Ponnala said he would like to contest the Bhongir Lok Sabha seat. He suggested his daughter-in-law P Vaishali’s name for Jangaon Assembly seat, which is being represented by him. Ponnala’s request to contest from Bhongir was opposed by sitting MP Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy.
The T-Congress election panel held a one-on-one with sitting MPs and party leaders to finalise the candidates’ list. As two of the party’s sitting MPs _ G Vivekananda (Peddapalli) and Manda Jagannatham (Nagarkurnool) _ had defected to the TRS, the party has begun searching for new faces for the two seats. The Congress is said to be considering to field Gajjela Kantham, who has recently joined the party, from Peddapalli.
The party leadership is also shorlisting the probables for Khammam Lok Sabha seat which was lost to the TDP in 2009. Former Union minister Renuka Chowdary and former AICC secretary Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy are in the race for the ticket. Interestingly, Medak MP Vijayashanti, who has joined the Congress after quitting TRS, is also considering Khammam as her second choice if she is not fielded from Medak.
Emerging from the meeting, Jana Reddy said he believed that all the sitting MPs/MLAs would be renominated. Meanwhile, the screening committee will finalise the list of probables and submit it to the party’s central election committee in the next few days. The list will be announced by March 30.