Congress on hunt for Nzb, Karimnagar power players

Hyderabad: The Congress is on the hunt for strong contenders for Karimnagar and Nizamabad Lok Sabha seats to challenge the sitting MPs from the BJP, Bandi Sanjay Kumar and Dharmapuri Arvind, respectively.
With nine candidates already announced in the first two lists, the party is now focusing on identifying candidates with winning prospects for the remaining eight parliamentary seats in Telangana.
The BRS has named four-term MLA Bajireddy Govardhan as its candidate for Nizamabad, a seat earlier represented by Kalvakuntla Kavitha, from 2014 to 2019. She lost the seat to Dharmapuri Arvind of BJP in 2019.
From Karimnagar, BRS has fielded its former MP B Vinod Kumar, who has won the seat in 2014 and lost to Bandi Sanjay in 2019.
Cong targets 14 of 17 seats
With both BJP and BRS presenting strong candidates, pressure mounts on the Congress think-tank to nominate formidable contenders, aiming to fulfil TPCC president and chief minister A Revanth Reddy’s target of winning 14 of the 17 seats.
Though as many as 14 applicants vie for Karimnagar seat and another nine for Nizamabad seat, the grand old party is taking its own time to finalise the candidates for the two constituencies and six other constituencies. The possibility of introducing new faces for some of the eight seats is not ruled out. The third list of the Congress candidates is expected by March 27.
While party veteran T Jeevan Reddy is the front runner for the Nizamabad seat, the Congress think tank is exerting pressure on its working president and MLC B Mahesh Kumar Goud to contest from this seat.
Emphasis is placed on selecting candidate from BC community, given their significant presence in Nizamabad. However, the Congress is expecting the substantial minority community votes to be polled in favour of them, unlike their vote bank being divided between Congress and BRS in the 2023 assembly elections.
Aligireddy Praveen Reddy, who sacrificed his Husnabad assembly seat for party senior Ponnam Prabhakar, is among those under consideration. Similarly, the party awaits strong candidates, even from other parties to join its ranks, who can be fielded for both seats.