Cong re-nominates Telangana ministers

The Congress on Saturday announced its candidates for 16 constituencies in Telangana, re-nominating all the three Union ministers and most of its sitting MPs from the region including S Jaipal Reddy for the Lok Sabha polls.

The party also announced the names of 110 candidates for the Assembly polls in Telangana, which is set to become a separate state. The region, which has a total 119 Assembly seats, is scheduled to go to polls on April 30.

The party fielded Reddy from Mahabubanagar, shifting him from Chelvella parliamentary seat. Union Ministers—Sarvey Satyanarayana and Balram Nayak—will contest Lok Sabha polls from Malkajgiri and Mahabubabad constituencies respectively.

G Vivekanand, who joined Congress quitting Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), has been named from reserved seat of Pedapally (SC), currently respresented by him. He is the youngest son of veteran Congress leader and former member of Parliament G Venkataswamy.

The party re-nominated Ponnam Prabhakar, a sitting MP, to contest from Karimnagar seat while Madhu Yakshi Goud will seek re election from Nizamabad constituency.
Other sitting MPs of Congress Suresh Kumar Shetkar, Anjan Kumar Yadav, G Sukhender Reddy, K Rajagopal Reddy and Rajaiah Siricilla will seek re-election from Zahirabad, Secunderabad, Nalgonda, Bhongir and Warangal seats respectively. The Congress Rajya Sabha MP Nandi Yelliah will contest from from Nagarkurnool. The party fielded Sama Krishna Reddy to contest from Hyderabad seat.

In the Assembly polls too, most of the senior leaders of the party were renominated, including former deputy chief minister Damodar Rajanarsimha, Telangana Congress Pradesh Committee (PCC) chief Ponniah Lakshmanaiya and PCC working president Uttam Kumar Reddy.

It has also fielded 20 candidates belonging to scheduled castes (SC), 9 from scheduled tribes (ST) and five minorities—one Christian and four Muslims.