Karimnagar: The Congress leadership is likely to announce the name of its candidate in a couple of days for the October 30 Huzurabad bypolls.
State Congress chief A. Revanth Reddy handed over the responsibility of selection of the candidate Damodar Rajanarasimha, Huzurabad Assembly segment incharge and former deputy chief minister, along with election coordinators, MLC T. Jeevan Reddy, MLA D. Sridhar Babu and former MP Ponnam Prabhakar.
In 2018, Padi Koushik Reddy then contesting on a Congress ticket, secured 61,121 votes. He has since shifted to the TRS. The Congress is trying to retain its vote bank.
The Congress initially considered former minister Konda Surekha, who hails from the Backward Class community as do the Gellu Srinivas Yadav, the TRS candidate, and former minister Etala Rajendar of the BJP.
But, with the objections from the local leaders and in with keeping with some demands by Surekha, the leadership decided to field a local candidate. The district Congress committee has received 19 applications from candidates for the Congress ticket.
The names of Patti Krishna Reddy, DCC president Dr Kavvampally Satyanarayana and Pyata Ramesh are making the rounds. Patti Krishna Reddy, district president of the Kisan Morcha, hails from Reddy community which is believed to have around 26,000 votes. A resident of Venkatraopally of Huzurabad mandal, he is a well-known figure and is active in Huzurabad politics.
Dr Satyanarayana and P. Ramesh are from Karimnagar city and belong to the SC community which has about 53,000 votes. Dr Satyanarayana is said to be a close associates of Revanth Reddy and Ramesh is the spokesperson of the party.
