Surekha leads Cong. ticket race

Party feels ex-MLA will give fight in Huzurabad

Former minister Konda Surekha is likely to be the Congress candidate for the high-voltage Huzurabad Assembly byelection. The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee has tentatively finalised her candidature and sent the proposal to the party high command on Saturday for finalisation.

The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee election management committee, chaired by former deputy chief minister Damodar C. Rajanarsimha, proposed three candidates: Former MLA S.A. Sampath Kumar from the Scheduled Castes, Konda Surekha from the Backward Classes community, and Kistareddy from the OC communities.

The report has been submitted to AICC Telangana state in-charge Manickam Tagore for finalisation of candidate.

Tagore will submit it to the party high command and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will approve the candidature, party sources said.

Padi Koushik Reddy, who had contested on the ticket Congress in 2018 from Huzurabad, switched loyalties to the TRS. In this context, a new candidate was required for the byelection there.

Political opponents said the Congress would not be in a position to retain its deposit inthe byelection. In the face of this, the state party leadership strongly believes that Surekha will give a tough fight in Huzurabad.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, TPCC senior vicepresident Mallu Ravi said that the Congress was emerging as a strong opponent in the Huzurabad byelection.

“Anything is possible in electoral politics”, he said.

Damodar Rajanarsimha is also the incharge for the byelection and is focussing on the issues, he added.