Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A Revanth Reddy has said that he will contest the coming Assembly election from the Kodangal constituency, while former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir plans to take on Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in Kamareddy.
They were among several senior Congress leaders who submitted applications for Assembly tickets. The number of applicants for Congress tickets has crossed 700, party sources said. With Friday being the last day for submitting applications, the number is likely to increase significantly.
Revanth Reddy visited the Kodangal constituency and interacted with the local leaders of the party on Thursday, August 24. Later, some leaders submitted applications for tickets on behalf of the TPCC president.
Revanth Reddy, who is a former MLA of Kodangal, is currently a Member of Parliament of Malkajgiri constituency. He said he would be entering the fray from Kodangal in Vikarabad district on the suggestion of the party's high command.
Earlier, Revanth Reddy was elected twice from Kodangal in 2009 and 2014 on Telugu Desam Party (TDP) ticket. He joined the Congress party in 2017 and lost the 2018 Assembly election from Kodangal to Patnam Narender Reddy of BRS. He was later elected to Lok Sabha in 2019 from Malkajgiri.
In 2021, the Congress leadership appointed him the state party president, sidelining several senior leaders. He is the second Congress MP after Uttam Kumar Reddy to apply for an Assembly ticket. Uttam Kumar, who is a Lok Sabha member from Nalgonda, has already announced that he will contest the Assembly election from Huzurabad while his wife Padmavathi will be the party candidate from Kodad.
Senior Congress leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir has applied for a party ticket from Kamareddy. He will be pitted against Chief Minister KCR, who has already announced that he will contest from Kamareddy as well as Gajwel, a seat that the CM won in 2018. Shabbir, who was elected from Kamareddy in 1989 and 2004, has lost the last four consecutive elections to Gampa Govardhan of BRS.
Former ministers Ponnala Lakshmaiah and Jeevan Reddy have applied for tickets from the Jangaon and Jagtial constituencies respectively. Former minister K Jana Reddy’s son Raghuveer Reddy has submitted an application for a ticket from Nagarjuna Sagar constituency.
The applications will be accepted till 5 pm on Friday. A large number of applicants are likely to turn up on the last day. After receiving the applications and their scrutiny, the party’s state unit will conduct a survey about the winning chances of the eligible aspirants.
Revanth Reddy said that the names of the applicants shortlisted by the state election committee will be sent to the screening committee. The screening committee will analyse the list and after filtering, send the selected names to the party's central election committee. If the central election committee is also unable to decide on the candidates, the names will be forwarded to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) for final decision.
The party is collecting application fees of Rs 50,000 from every applicant. However, for the applicants belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the application fee is Rs 25,000.