Hyderabad: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Telangana on Sunday, November 5, released its first list of 14 candidates for the upcoming Legislative Assembly elections. This announcement came on Sunday after an unsuccessful negotiation for the alliance with the Congress party.
State secretary of the party, Thammineni Veerabhadram, will contest Palair in the Khammam district. He will contest against BRS sitting MLA Kandala Upender Reddy and Congress candidate Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy.
The party also listed Karam Pullaiah for Bhadrachalam (ST) and Pitlala Arjun for Aswaraopet (ST), both from the Bhadradri district. The Khammam district sees multiple nominations; the party listed candidates from all the seven seats in the undivided Khammam district: Paladugu Bhaskar for Madhira (SC), Bhukya Veerabhadram for Wyra (ST), Yerra Srikanth for the Khammam seat, and Macharla Bharathi for Sathupalli (SC).
The CPI(M) has also fielded candidates from Miryalguda, Nakirekal (SC), Bhuvanagiri, Janagam, Ibrahimpatnam, Patancheru and Musheerabad.
Thammineni Veerabhadram told the media that the party’s initial decision to contest from 17 seats is ongoing. It is learned that the party will soon nominate candidates for a few additional constituencies.
CPI(M) decided to go alone after the Congress failed to respond to its demand for two seats. It announced that it will contest 24 seats.
Last week, CPI(M) warned of contesting the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections independently if the Congress party doesn’t allocate the Wyra and Miryalaguda seats to them. They set November 2 as the deadline for the Congress party to accept its demand for Wyra and Miryalaguda seats. Later, the Congress also refused to leave Wyra and told the CPI leaders that it would give Miryalaguda another seat in Hyderabad.
The Congress party had agreed to leave two seats each for CPI and CPI(M) under the seat-sharing agreement. The CPI is still waiting for Congress to announce its final list. The Congress had offered Kothagudem and Chennur seats to the CPI. The Congress party has announced candidates for 100 out of 119 Assembly seats.
(With inputs from IANS)
