Cong list for Telangana LS, assembly polls out

Senior leaders Damodar Raja Narsimha, Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Kunduru Jana Reddy figure in the list of 111 Congress candidates for assembly elections in Telangana released by the party on Monday night, ending two days of suspense.

The other former ministers include Uttam Kumar Reddy, Sudarshan Reddy, Sridhar Babu and D K Aruna.

The party has fielded two actors -- Vijayashanti and Jaya Sudha -- from Medak and Secundrabad constituencies.

While Vijayashanti was elected from Medak Lok Sabha constituency on a TRS ticket last time and subsequently joined Congress, Jaya Sudha has been re-nominated from Secundrabad.

Rajya Sabha MP V Hanumanth Rao also finds a place in the list and he would be fighting for Amberpet assembly seat.

The national party is expected to tie-up with CPI in the region amidst indications that it has left eight seats for the Left party.

Moreover, Congress had declared contestants for the 16 Lok Sabha seats, keeping one reserved for its possible alliance partner.

Apparently faced with intense pulls and pressures, the party had failed to declare its nominees for the assembly elections in Telangana yesterday, nearly 24 hours after it called a press conference to release the list of 110 candidates.

At 22.15 hours on Saturday night, party leader Randeep Singh Surjewala had called a press conference in Delhi to announce the list.

He told the media that the party high command has cleared a list of 16 candidates for Lok Sabha and 110 candidates for assembly seats and proceeded to announce the names.

Surjewala announced the names of 16 candidates for Lok Sabha and even as he started reading out the assembly candidates, he stopped apparently after some urgent last-minute message and the briefing was over.