Congress Cap On Tickets Upsets Aspirants

Hyderabad: One family, one ticket practice in Congress has caused displeasure among senior Congress leaders. It is learned that the high command has strictly implemented the one family, one ticket rule.

Ex minister D.K. Aruna is expected to contest from Gadwal constituency and wanted the Mahbubnagar ticket for her daughter Snigdha Reddy. Ex minister J. Geetha Reddy is all set contest from Zaheerabad and tried pitching for Medak ticket for her daughter Meghana Reddy.

Another Senior Congress leader K. Jana Reddy also could not get a MLA ticket for his son Raghuveer Reddy for Miryalaguda. He even thought of contesting from Miryalaguda and gave away his home constituency Nagarjunasagar to his son. But all his attempts have gone in vain in front of the Central election committee before it could meet AICC President Rahul Gandhi. Now, Jana Reddy will be contesting from Nagarjunasagar.

Gandra Venkataramana Reddy is contesting from Bhupalpally constituency and also wanted his wife Jyothi’s name in the list. Besides, MLA and Ex minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah wanted a place for his daughter-in-law. Another senior Congress leader Sabitha Indra Reddy is contesting from Maheswaram and had put forward her son Karthik Reddy’s name for Rajendranagar.

Few other senior leaders including Ex deputy chief minister Damodar Raja Narasimha proposed his family members for Congress tickets. All of them are going to be disappointed, with the one family, one ticket rule, it appears.

However, a few candidates may be exempted. The criteria of the high Command seems to be a victory in at least one election to make it into the candidature list. TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy has won from Huzurabad and his wife Padmavathi from Kodada in 2014 elections and both of them are likely to retain tickets for their constituencies. Komatireddy Venkatareddy has been elected as MLA from the Nalgonda Assembly constituency, but his brother Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy could not succeed from the Bhongir Lok Sabha seat. Both have been given tickets this Assembly elections.

TPCC campaign committee chairman Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka was given Madhira and his brother and former MP Mallu Ravi, Jedcherla.

There are five more MPs who have been given Assembly tickets as per media reports — Ponnam Prabhakar (Karimnagar), Balaram Naik (Mahbubabad) Sarve Satyanarayana (Secunderabad cantonment), Suresh Shetkar (Narayankhed) and Ramesh Rathod (Khanapur).

The Congress central election committee is yet to finalize the candidates for 19 Assembly constituencies. For 12 assembly seats there is more than one candidate seeking tickets.

For instance, both Premsagar Rao and Aravind Reddy are seeking Manchiryal constituency, Nizamabad Urban is wanted by Mahesh Goud and A. Narsireddy. While Nizamabad Rural is sought by Mr R. Bhoopathi Reddy and Mr Venkateswara Rao.

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