Telangana Congress tickets: It’s all in the families for aspirants

HYDERABAD: For Congress, its not the 'Inheritance of Loss' (popular title of Kiran Desai's Man Booker Prize), but it is laws of inheritance. For, politics run in their bloodline for Congress leaders and dynasty politics began from the days of yore. Telangana Congress President A Revanth Reddy has, wittingly or unwittingly, opened the proverbial Pandora's box by calling for applications for party tickets in the upcoming Assembly elections.

Buoyed by the call, several Congress leaders have chosen to seek two to three tickets from each of their families. Former ministers, former MPs and present MPs have decided to try their luck with the party in securing tickets for their progeny.

For example, former Minister K Jana Reddy's two sons Raghuveer Reddy and Jayaveer Reddy have applied for tickets from Miryalaguda and Nagarjuna Sagar constituencies respectively. Former Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha has applied for Andole, and his daughter Trisha too has submitted an application from the constituency.

Similarly, former MP Anjan Kumar Yadav has applied for Musheerabad. According to sources, both his sons Anil Kumar Yadav and Tillu Yadav, have sought tickets from Secunderabad and Goshamahal constituencies respectively but have not applied for it.

Among the veterans, former Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief Uttam Kumar Reddy has applied for Huzurnagar and for his wife Padmavathi Reddy from Kodad. D Seethakka has asked for Mulugu herself again and Pinakapa constituency for her son Suryam.

Former Union Minister Balaram Naik demanded that his son also be considered for a seat along with him in Mahabubabad, but it has not been discussed by the party yet. Senior Congress leader Konda Surekha and her husband Muralidhar Rao have applied too from Warangal East and Parkal respectively.

Former MLA late P Janardhan Reddy’s son Vishnuvardhan Reddy and daughter Vijaya Reddy have also thrown their hat in the ring for tickets from Jubilee Hills and Khairatabad respectively. Since both of them are from the same family, only one of them is likely get a ticket if the party follows its rule book.

Meanwhile, Regulapati Ramya Rao, daughter of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s brother, submitted applications seeking the Karimnagar seat for herself or her son Ritesh Rao.

With so many aspirants, some of the leaders within Congress itself have accused others of nepotism. The issue of ‘One Family, One Ticket’ rule of the Congress, which was adopted in its Udaipur Declaration in 2022, came up for discussion at a recent meeting of the Congress election committee.

However there was a rider put in place that that if the relative concerned worked for the party for at least five years, they could be given a party ticket.

By this logic, except for Seethakka's son, all other relatives of leaders fit the bill for seeking a ticket from their respective constituencies.

In the meeting, Uttam Kumar Reddy wanted Revanth Reddy to make a proposal on the issue of family tickets, but Revanth Reddy said the issue would be looked into by the party's central leadership. When Uttam Kumar Reddy insisted that as State unit chief, he should make the proposal to the high command, Revanth Reddy asked him not to dictate him. Irked over this, Uttam Kumar Reddy left the meeting.

The Congress high command is now faced with the difficult task of deciding how to allocate tickets to do many aspirants. It is a decision that could have a major impact on the party's chances in the upcoming elections.

In addition to the family ticket issue, the Congress is also facing the challenge of choosing candidates who can win. The party has been out of power since the formation of Telangana, and it will need to field strong candidates if it wants to make a comeback.

The Congress election committee is expected to meet again soon to discuss the issue of tickets. The party is under pressure to announce its candidates as early as possible, in order to give them enough time to campaign.