Telangana Assembly polls: Congress likely to release its 2nd list on Oct 22

The Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) is likely to release its second list of candidates for the upcoming assembly elections scheduled on November 30, a Deccan Chronicle (DC) report has said. The update comes as the party completes its bus yatra's first phase on Friday. There is a great deal of speculation regarding the names which will feature in the second and third lists of the party as there are expectations that the list will have some surprising names in it.

The report said that the party will declare all the candidates in three lists by October 25. Party sources cited in the report said that Congress will release its second list on October 22 and will likely name fifty candidates. Earlier, on October 15, the party had already released its first list containing 55 candidates.

There is news that the party was planning to release the second list on October 19, however, it refrained from doing so to avoid any revolting candidates expressing their disappointment about their non-inclusion as the party was conducting a bus yatra in the state. The party wanted to spare Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi the embarrassment of witnessing such an outcome.

As the election date comes closer, the suspension continues as to who will be the candidate against the sitting Chief Minister of Telangana, K Chandrashekhar Rao. So far, neither BJP nor Congress has come up with a name to be their chief minister.

There is little clarity about the candidate contesting against KCR from Kamareddy Assembly constituency, a seat where Former Minister Shabbir Ali has been contesting for long, the DC report said.