HYDERABAD/KARIMNAGAR : Even as the Congress is dilly-dallying in announcing its candidate for Karimnagar, ticket aspirant Velichala Rajender Rao filed his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha elections on Monday. Accompanied by Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, Government Whip Aadi Srinivas and MLAs Kavvampalli Satyanarayana and Medipalli Satyam, he handed over his nomination papers to district collector and returning officer Pamela Satpathy at the collectorate.
Earlier, Rajender along with senior party leaders and Congress activists held a rally to the collectorate in a show of strength.
Speaking to reporters, Satyanarayana said the party high command has already decided to nominate Rajender from Karimnagar and would be making the official announcement on Thursday (April 25). “The minister (Prabhakar) and three party MLAs proposed Rajender’s name to the leadership,” he said.
Rajender also mentioned that he is confident of securing the ticket to contest from the segment.
Meanwhile, this development has set off a debate within the party ranks. It is learnt that the Congress leadership is yet to finalise a candidate and was set to make an announcement within the next two days. While Rajender is most likely to get the nod, the party workers questioned how a minister and Congress MLAs extended their support even without an official announcement from the party. They even alleged that the senior leaders engaged in favouritism and encouraged only one aspirant’s candidature.
Cadre criticise involvement of minister, MLAs in rally
“It is wrong on the part of ministers and MLAs to support this and take part in the nomination rally. If Rajender wanted to contest, he could have filed the nomination papers, expecting the party nod,” they said.
Former Husnabad MLA, Aligireddy Praveen Reddy, is also one of the frontrunners for the ticket. Following Rajender submitting his papers, it is learnt that Praveen told his followers that he is now ‘forced’ to file his nomination for the Karimnagar Lok Sabha seat as well. They sources said the party was in the process of finalising the candidate while considering the different equations at play and inputs from strategist Sunil Kanugolu.