Hyderabad: Former APCC president and former minister Ponnala Laxmaiah, whose name did not figure in the first list of party candidates released by the AICC on Tuesday, today declared he would contest from his Jangaon Assembly constituency in the upcoming Assembly elections. He also said he was surprised to see that his name was missing did in the first list. “I have been associated with the party since the last three-and-a-half decades and I have been contesting from the same constituency since I entered politics. I was totally disappointed after not finding my name in the first list,” he said.
Addressing media persons here today, Laxmaiah said he came to Delhi to meet the party elders and urge them to allot the seat to him while reminding them the services he rendered to the party high command. He also tried to throw light on the allocation of the Jangaon seat to the grand alliance partner Telangana Jana Samithi headed by Prof. Kodandaram. “There was no iota of truth in the reports that my seat has been allotted to the TJS. In fact, neither TJS leaders say anywhere that the TJS demanded Jangaon seat from the Congress party nor its president Kondaram talked about the seat,” he noted.
The senior Congress leader, however, agreed that the Congress party was losing some important Assembly seats due to the collation compulsions in the State. He exuded confidence that his name would figure in the second list to be released by the party in a day or two. He pointed out that non-allocation of Assembly seats to all sections of society would become a weapon for party rivals to criticize the Congress party.
[source_without_link]NSS[/source_without_link]