![Telangana Cong’s second candidate list out, Uttam Kumar Reddy to contest from Nalgonda](http://media.assettype.com/tnm%2Fimport%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Futtam-kumar-reddy_750.jpg?w=480&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max)
The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) on Monday released their second list of candidates with eight names for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The TPCC Chief, N Uttam Kumar Reddy, will be contesting from the Nalgonda Lok Sabha constituency. He is presently the Huzurabad MLA. With the release of the second list containing eight names, the Congress has so far announced 16 names out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats from Telangana.
Only the Khammam constituency remains undecided for the Congress. The party may decide the candidate only after the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) announces their candidate for the constituency. Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy of TRS, who was formerly with YSRCP, is currently representing the Khammam constituency.
The TPCC had recommended Gayatri Ravi, a granite businessman, as their candidate but had faced objection from former Union Minister Renuka Chowdhury, reported the Times of India.
Apart from Uttam Kumar, those who made it to the list are N Vamsichand Reddy for Mahbubnagar, Madhu Yaskhi Goud for Nizamabad, Anjan Kumar Yadav for Secundrabad, Feroze Khan for Hyderabad, Mallu Ravi for Nagarkurnool, Komatireddy Venkata Reddy for Bhongir and Dommati Sambhaiah for Warangal.
For the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Congress has abandoned the Prajakutami or People’s Alliance with Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS), Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) after facing heavy loss in the Assembly poll in 2018. Though the TJS is contesting independently from four constituencies, including Malkajgiri, Nizamabad and Karimnagar, they have offered support to the campaign for the Congress in other constituencies.
Meanwhile, the TPCC is steadily losing MLAs to the TRS with as many as eight MLAs having defected from the party since the state elections in December 2018. With these defections, the Congress party in the state now faces the threat of losing the official status of the Opposition in Telangana. The Congress had won 19 seats from 119 constituencies in the assembly polls held recently.