RAMANA, NAIDU DISCUSS SEATS

both were given tickets. Mr Komatireddy Venkatareddy was elected from the Nalgonda Assembly constituency and his brother Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy was defeated from the Bhongir Lok Sabha seat. Both have been nominated for the Assembly elections.

TPCC campaign committee chairman Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka was given Madhira and his brother and former MP Mallu Ravi Jedcherla. Apart from these, five former MPs were given Assembly tickets — Ponnam Prabhakar (Karimnagar), Balaram Naik (Mahbubabad) Sarve Satyanarayana (Secunderabad cantonment), Suresh Shetkar (Narayankhed) and Ramesh Rathod (Khanapur).

The Congress central election committee has to finalise candidates for 19 Assembly seats. In 12 constituencies there are more than one candidate are seeking tickets.

For example both Mr Premsagar Rao and Mr Aravind Reddy want the Manchiryal seat, Nizamabad Urban is being sought by Mr Mahesh Goud and Mr A. Narsireddy and Nizamabad Rural by Mr R. Bhoopathi Reddy and Mr Venkateswara Rao. TD Telangana unit president L. Ramana along with other leaders met party president and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu at Undavalli on Thursday and discussed seat-sharing for the Telangana state polls. Mr Naidu reportedly told Mr Ramana not to insist on more than 14 seats from the Congress.

Many ticket aspirants met Mr Naidu and pressed their claims for a ticket. It is learnt that while there is clarity on the number of seat the TD will contest, the discussions on Thursday were regarding the selection of candidates.

Mr Naidu is said to have given his assent to the names given by TS TD leadership making some changes. He asked Mr Ramana to placate aspirants who could not get party tickets.