Senior Congress leaders Pallam Raju, JD Seelam, Rajya Sabha MPs T Subbarami Reddy and Sirivella Prasad, Mastan Vali, Chinta Mohan are some of the people who will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Andhra Pradesh, a state where the Congress is trying hard to revive its prospects after the bifurcation of the state which saw the carving out of Telangana left it decimated.
Senior Congress leaders Pallam Raju, JD Seelam, Rajya Sabha MPs T Subbarami Reddy and Sirivella Prasad, Mastan Vali, Chinta Mohan are some of the people who will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Andhra Pradesh, a state where the Congress is trying hard to revive its prospects after the bifurcation of the state which saw the carving out of Telangana left it decimated.
Party sources said that after an internal survey showed that 70% of the respondents wanted to see Rahul Gandhi as prime minister, the Congress is planning to fight the Lok Sabha elections aggressively. Senior party leader and close Rahul aide K Raju has been sent to work on the state. A party leader said that the party is “going for the kill” in the Lok Sabha elections.
The party’s poll plank in the Lok Sabha elections will be the issue of Special Category status, and the party’s existing cadre will try and pass the message that among the parties in the fray -- the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) -- only Congress can accord Special Category to the state. The TDP broke away from the NDA in March last year on the contention that PM Narendra Modi did not walk the talk on his promise of providing the status on the state.
A meeting of the screening committee at Congress’s Gurudwara Rakabganj Road office took place on Friday, where these seats were discussed. While Pallam Raju will contest from the Kakinada seat, Mastan Vali is likely to be given the Guntur seat, and former Congress leader Kishore Chanda Deo’s daughter Shruti Devi will be given the Arakau seat. Deo had recently moved to the TDP.
Additionally, with former Congress leader Panabaka Lakshmi moving to the TDP early this week, the Bapatla seat will be given to JD Seelam. The party has also offered Rajya Sabha MP T Subbarami Reddy the Vishakapatnam seat and is yet to have his not. Dr Prasad could be given the Ongole seat. Senior leader Chinta Mohan, as well as AICC secretary Rudra Raju, are also likely to get tickets.
In contrast, in the Assembly elections, the party will try to help the TDP by cutting into Jagan’s votes. Both the Congress and the YSRCP are vying for the anti-incumbency votes, especially from the Dali, SC, ST, minority and youth segments. Sources said that the party will field several leaders who are below 45 years of age.
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