Miffed with Congress, CPI(M) releases first list of 14 candidates

HYDERABAD: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Telangana unveiled its first list of 14 candidates for the forthcoming Legislative Assembly elections on Sunday. This move came after failed negotiations for an alliance with the Congress party.

Thammineni Veerabhadram, the party's state secretary, would compete for the Palair seat in Khammam district. His opponents include BRS incumbent MLA Kandala Upender Reddy and Congress candidate Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy.

The party's candidates include Karam Pullaiah for Bhadrachalam (ST) and Pitlala Arjun for Aswaraopet (ST), both from the Bhadradri district. The Khammam district saw multiple nominations, with candidates listed for all 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) also fielded candidates in Miryalguda, Nakirekal (SC), Bhuvanagiri, Janagam, Ibrahimpatnam, Patancheru, and Musheerabad.

Thammineni Veerabhadram informed media that a discussion on the party's initial decision to contest 17 seats was ongoing, and more candidates for additional constituencies would be nominated soon.

CPI(M) chose to go solo after the Congress failed to respond to its request for two seats, announcing its intention to contest 24 seats.

Last week, CPI(M) had warned of independent participation in the upcoming Telangana Assembly elections if the Congress didn't allocate the Wyra and Miryalaguda seats to them. The Congress party refused to relinquish Wyra and offered the CPI(M) another seat in Hyderabad in place of Miryalaguda, to which CPI(M) did not agree.

The Congress party had initially agreed to reserve two seats each for CPI and CPI(M) as part of the seat-sharing agreement. However, the CPI was still waiting for the Congress to finalise its list. The Congress party had announced candidates for 100 out of 119 Assembly seats.

Reports indicated that Congress leader Jana Reddy had contacted Thammineni Veerabhadram to request a delay in the announcements of candidate. Tammineni however confirmed 14 seats that would be contested by his partymen, with three more seats under discussion. Tammineni expressed frustration, highlighting the lack of decisions beyond discussions with the Congress.