Ending the weeks-long suspense on its candidates and sharing of seats with allies in Telangana, the Congress has almost finalised the list and will announce it on Friday.
With the scene shifting to New Delhi, State party leaders N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, K. Jana Reddy, Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Mohammad Ali Shabbir and others had one final round of screening of candidates and prepared the list for final approval of the Central Election Committee.
The committee will meet on Thursday evening to approve the list and the national leadership will announce it on Friday evening. The seat-sharing details will be made public by the alliance partners in Hyderabad the same day, Congress sources said.
Sources said it was decided to leave 29 seats to the allies. The Congress is planning to contest 90 seats and allocate 14 to the TDP, 10 to the Telangana Jana Samiti and four to the CPI. The party may give the Karwan seat in Old City to the Majlis Bachao Tahreek.
“There has been demand that the Karwan seat be left to the MBT as it has a strong candidate,” a senior party functionary said.
Sources said the Congress leadership had no difficulty in finalising its candidates for 80 seats.
In the other 10, presence of strong contenders made the choice difficult.
The stalemate still continues but the high command stepped in to summon the aspirants and explain the situation.
It is understood that Suryapet, Mancherial, Mulugu (ST), Station Ghanpur (SC), Choppadandi (SC) and Peddapalli are some of the assembly seats where the Congress is in a fix on selecting the candidates. Nevertheless, the leadership is confident that it will overcome the difficulties.
Ex-MPs in fray
On the other hand, the party has decided to rope in former party MPs to take the plunge in the assembly elections. Names of TPCC working President Ponnam Prabhakar from Karimnagar, former Union Ministers Sarvey Satyanarayana and P. Balram Naik (Secunderabad Cantonment and Mahabubabad respectively), Mallu Ravi (Jadcherla), Suresh Shetkar (Narayankhed) and actor Vijayashanti (Medak). Vijayashanti, who is the party’s one of the star campaigner, had contested the 2014 Assembly elections from Medak seat and lost.