Hyderabad: Congress’ Telangana incharge Manikrao Thakre on Saturday said that the second list of candidates for state polls will be released after Dasara, by October 25, after a meeting in Delhi with the party’s screening committee.
Speaking to media personnel after the meeting, Thakre said: “The second list will be released only after Dasara. The second list is likely to be released by October 25. Talks with Left parties for alliance are going on and will be finalised soon.”
Thakre said the screening committee has finalised the second list of candidates and referred it to AICC’s central election committee (CEC) led by its chief Mallikarjun Kharge. He said CEC will meet after Dasara, finalise candidate names and release the list by October 25.
The meeting held at the residence of AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal was attended by TPCC chief A. Revanth Reddy, CLP leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and Thakre, among others.
Thakre said there were multiple aspirants for several seats and the screening committee decided to hold meetings with the candidates in Delhi to strike a consensus and ensure that all of them work for the victory of party candidates once the list is announced. He said attempts are also being made to release the list of all remaining candidates in one go.
The Congress is yet to declare candidates for 64 Assembly constituencies in Telangana.
Party sources said that in the second list, the screening committee finalised the names of 50 candidates. The second list was supposed to be released by October 19, but was put on hold due to the bus yatra undertaken by Rahul Gandhi in Telangana for three days.
As Rahul Gandhi’s tour concluded on Friday, Telangana Congress leaders rushed to Delhi on Saturday to take part in the screening committee meeting.
Sources said the CPI and CPM demanded five seats each, but the Congress offered two seats each and convinced both parties. But a consensus is yet to be reached on the constituencies.
The Congress reportedly offered Wyra and Miryalaguda to the CPM and Kothagudem and Chennur to the CPI.
However, protests erupted within the Congress in Wyra and Chennur, with local leaders and workers hitting the streets opposing the allotment of these seats to CPI and CPM. They demanded Congress leadership field its candidates, because the Left parties were not strong in the segments.
