Kandula Rajamohan, YSV named Congress candidates

As expected, the Congress has forwarded the name of Kandula Rajamohan Reddy as its nominee for the Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency and Agriculture Minister YS Vivekananda Reddy for the Pulivendula Assembly constituency, immediately after the powerful Kandula brothers formally joined the Congress party on Thursday.

The Kandula brothers were formally welcomed in the Congress fold by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and PCC president D Srinivas.

Speaking to media persons at the Chief Minister’s Camp Office at Begumpet, Congress spokesperson Tulasi Reddy said that once the High Command approves the names, the two candidates would file their nomination papers on April 15 and 16 for the Kadapa Lok Sabha and Pulivendula Assembly constituencies respectively.

Mr Tulasi Reddy further said that along with the Kandula brothers, many other leaders from the Telugu Desam Party joined the Congress. The Congress spokesperson also expressed confidence that Mr Rajamohan Reddy would win the Kadapa seat.

Mr Tulasi Reddy said that the candidates have ample time to file their nomination papers and would do so only after the Congress High Command approves their names.

Mr Rajamohan Reddy had earlier given a tough fight to former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy who managed to win the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat in 1996 by a slender margin of 5000 votes.

Meanwhile, sources say that the delay in announcing the names was because of the intense lobbying by a group supporting Minister DL Ravindra Reddy who sought that he be named the party candidate.

Mr Tulasi Reddy however said that the delay was not because of the lack of candidates willing to take on Mr Jaganmohan Reddy, but because the Congress has an abundance of leaders. He said that while the TDP was in a hurry to announce the names of its candidates since Mr Chandrababu Naidu was to leave for Tamil Nadu to compaign and Mr Jaganmohan Reddy announced his candidature since he is the head of his party.

Earlier, intensely lobbying by Congress leaders DL Ravindra Reddy, Mohammed Ahmedullah and Tulasi Reddy, along with PRP leader C Ramachandraiah finally persuaded the Kandula brothers to leave the TDP and join the Congress.