Hyderabad: AICC President Rahul Gandhi today constituted a three-member Screening Committee to finalize the list of Congress nominees for the ensuing elections in Telangana State.
Rahul Gandhi had a three-hour brain-storming meeting with Telangana Congress leaders in New Delhi where in issues pertaining the coming elections like the prevailing political situation, the names of candidates to be fielded, chances of the nominees in various constituencies, strategy to be adopted during electioneering, besides his tour programme in the state for campaigning.
TPCC President Uttam Kumar Reddy, Batti Vikramarka, Jana Reddy, Shabbir Ali, Sunitha Laxma Reddy, D K Aruna, Geeta Reddy, Komatrireddy brothers and others were among the 40 odd leaders who attended were the meeting. AICC General Secretary Kuntia, in charge of party affairs in Telangana and other senior central party leaders were also present.
The Congress President also held one to one discussions with some senior party leaders from the State to apprise himself about the proposed pre-poll alliances with like-minded parties, ground realities of Congress chances visa-vis the TRS etc. Following his discussions with the party leaders from the state, he constituted the Screening Committee to scrutinize the list of names submitted to him and finalize the nominees.
The Screening Committee is headed by Bhaktacharan Das as Chairman and with Sharmista Mukherjee and Jyothimali Sennimale as members. The list is expected to be finalized shortly keeping in view the expected alliance with like-minded parties.
Rahul Gandhi also held discussions separately with Komatrieddy Venkatareddy and his brother Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy for nearly 15 minutes. During this meeting Komatireddy brothers are understood to have stressed the need for giving party tickets to those loyalists and youth who were with the party from the beginning. They also seemed to have broached the issue of entering into an alliance with TDP and explained as to where that party has some influence like in the pockets with sizeable population of settles, especially in the GHMC limits and surrounding areas. They are also understood to have impressed upon the Congress President that not more than four seats should be offered to TDP as anything more would only be a loss to the Congress.
Later speaking to the media Kunthia said that negotiations with TDP and CPI with regard to an alliance and seat sharing was in progress. Any final decision with regard to the pre-poll alliance wrests with the High Command. However, TPCC President Uttam Kumar Reddy on the other hand revealed that Rahul Gandhi had given a green signal for forging an alliance with like-minded parties. (NSS).
