Hyderabad: Despite the Muslim community and its representatives urging the Congress to support Muslim leadership in the Warangal East and West constituencies, which has a substantial Muslim population, the party chose nominees from other communities.
The list of 45 candidates released on Friday shows that Congress has nominated Konda Surekha for Warangal East and Naini Rajender Reddy for Warangal West, for the upcoming polls on 30 November.
Konda Surekha previously served as an MLA for the Shyampet, Parkal, and Warangal East constituencies. Naini Rajender Reddy, the candidate for Warangal West, heads the Warangal District Congress Committee. Reportedly, Syed Azmathullah Hussaini from Warangal East was keen on getting his name on the list.
Earlier, Congress made it clear that their winning prospects would majorly influence the finalisation of candidates, and it would satisfy the demands for social justice while ensuring electoral viability. Moreover, a majority of the Muslim committee in Warangal has been supporting Congress. However, the announcement of the second list may leave some of them disgruntled.
Congress, however, has fielded two prominent Muslim faces of the party in the upcoming polls — Mohammad Azharuddin from Jubilee Hills and Feroz Khan from Nampally.
The party is planning a ‘Minority Declaration’, similar to its other declarations on farmers, youth, SCs, and STs. Last week, Congress senior leader and TPCC minorities declaration draft committee chairman Mohammed Ali Shabbir said, “There will be an allocation of ₹5,000 crore in the budget for minority welfare and an increase in the budget for marriage schemes.”
In the 2018 Assembly polls, the BRS won 88 seats with the support of at least 10 per cent Muslim population.
Earlier, the BRS nominated Narendar Nannapuneni for Warangal East and Dasyam Vinay Bhaskar for Warangal West, while BJP has chosen Errabelli Pradeep Rao and Padma Rao to contest from Warangal East and West, respectively.
