TS Polls: Congress to announce first list of candidates on Nov 2

With the selection of candidates by the Congress party reaching the final stage, the scene shifted to party headquarters in Delhi on Wednesday. After the meeting of the party’s central election committee concludes, the party is set to announce its first list of candidates on November 2. TPCC chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy, campaign committee chief Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and other senior leaders travelled to Delhi to discuss the list and seat-sharing talks with AICC president Rahul Gandhi, who is also the president of central election committee.

The screening committee, led by Bhakta Charan Das, has completed its exercise and handed over the final list to AICC leadership. The party leadership will release it after one last round of vetting. As TDP national president and AP CM Chandrababu Naidu is also set to visit Delhi on Thursday, seat sharing talks are also expected to be finalised by Friday. A joint statement by all the parties in grand alliance on seat sharing is likely to be made on Friday.

“The screening committee has prepared the final list of contestants after taking opinions from all sections and groups in the party into consideration. AICC leadership will go through the list once again and it is very likely there won’t be any changes. Opinions of all TPCC senior leaders were considered while finalising the candidates. The first list, with more than 50 candidates, will be announced on November 2,” said a senior leader from AICC. Sources say all prominent faces in Congress will be named in the first list.