Congress Third List for Telangana Polls

The Congress on Saturday released its third list of 13 candidates for the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections, slated for 7 December.

Congress' first list of 65 candidates was released on 10 November, and the second list of 10 candidates for the state polls was released on 14 November.

The Congress is heading a four-party alliance in Telangana called the Mahakutami, and has left 24 seats for its three allies — Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) and Communist Party of India (CPI).

Under the seat-sharing formula announced by the Congress, the TDP would contest in 14 constituencies, TJS in eight and the CPI in three. The Congress would field nominees in 94 segments.

However, according to a report from The Economic Times, it is uncertain whether the TJS and CPI will continue in the Congress-led alliance if the leading Opposition party does not accede to their demands. Both have been threatening to pull out of the coalition, while the TDP agreed to the allotment.

In the same vein, Congress leader Abid Rasool Khan even quit the party on Friday, alleging that genuine Muslim ticket aspirants have been ignored.

A former chairman of the state Minorities Commission, Khan said the Congress should give tickets to Muslims in one constituency each in the 10 old districts of the state where the party have chances to win.

"Can they not do that much?" the state Congress vice-president asked in a poser to the party's central leadership.

The Congress' candidate lists include four Muslims, but Khan claimed that of the four, two have joined the party only recently and one was not even a member of the outfit.

"We (Muslim leaders of Telangana) are very upset. Our president, Rahul Gandhi, has time and again said he will take care of genuine workers, and he will not allow paratroopers to enter the party and take out the cake. Things are totally happening on the other side (to the contrary)," he told PTI.

The last date for filing of nomination for the elections to the 119-member assembly is 19 November.

Agencies