Hyderabad: Former Minister and former PCC President Ponnala Laxmaiah, has finally been selected by Congress high command to contest from his Jangaon Assembly constituency. The Congress party’s third list of 13 candidates for the Telangana Legislative Assembly elections was released today.
Ponnala’s name was cleared by All India Congress Committee to contest from Janagaon constituency that he has been asking for sometime now. It may be recalled that when his name was not found in the first two lists, Ponnala had camped in Delhi and met the high command leaders there, seeking party ticket to him to contest from his Jangaon seat. Finally, he succeeded in getting the ticket.
One of the prominent names missing from the party’s third list was that of former minister Marri Shashidhar Reddy who was the aspirant for Sanathnagar constituency ticket. In the seat sharing between the grand alliance partners, the Sanathnagar seat has been allotted to TDP. Even before the Congress released its list, the Telugu Desam Party, the Mahakootami partner in the State, announced that the TDP has selected Kuna Venkatesh Goud as its candidate from Sanathnagar seat.
The following are the names of candidates selected by the Congress party: Soyam Bapu Rao to contest from Boath (ST) constituency, Taher Bin Hamdan from Nizamabad (Urban), Dr Rekula Bhupathi Reddy from Nizamabad (Rural), E Anil Kumar from Balkonda, D Sudhir Reddy from LB Nagar, Osman Bin Mohammad Al Hazri from Karwan, K Rajender Raju from Yakutpura, Kalem Baba from Bahdurpura, Beeram Harsh Vardhan Reddy from Kollapur, Balu Naik from Devarakonda (ST), Addanki Dayakar from Thungathurthy (SC), Ponnala Laxmaiah from Janagaon and Banoth Haripriya Naik from Yellandu (ST) constituencies.
With the third list, the Congress has so far released names of its candidates for 88 seats. The party is yet to announce candidates for six more constituencies which will take its candidate tally to a total of 94 out of the 119 Assembly constituencies. The remaining 25 constituencies are left out to TDP, TJS and CPI.
[source_without_link]NSS[/source_without_link]