The ‘controversy’ in Telangana Congress sees an upswing over the ‘one-family-one-ticket’ norm and several senior leaders are keeping their fingers crossed over the fate of their children or wife for whom they have sought an additional ticket.
Those opposing the ‘two-tickets formula’ are citing the Udaipur Declaration, where the Congress adopted several resolutions of which one is the ‘one-family-one-ticket rule. At the Sankalp Shivir held on May 15, 2022, in Udaipur, the party discussed various issues, including giving one ticket to one family. The issue assumed significance as there were several veterans trying to launch their sons in the political arena.
Riders
But the ‘one-family-one-ticket’ is not a blanket rule to be adopted and there is a rider to it. It exempted those family members who worked in the party for five years, apparently to stonewall the criticism in future about the Gandhi family, if at all Priyanka Gandhi also wanted to contest along with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.
If that norm is adopted in Telangana Congress, several families would be eligible, including former TPCC chief and Nalgonda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and his wife Padmavathi Devi. She was a Congress MLA from Kodad constituency from 2014 to 2018 and lost in 2018 with a slim margin of over 1,000 votes. This time Mr. Reddy applied for Huzurabad constituency that he represented thrice while Ms. Padmavathi applied for Kodad.
There are other stalwarts within the Congress who have applied for two tickets. Senior leader K. Jana Reddy opted out and now, wants his son Raghuveer Reddy to contest from Miryalaguda constituency while he wanted his own constituency Nagarjunasagar for another son Jayaveer Reddy.
Former Deputy Chief Minister and Dalit leader Damodar Rajanarasimha has sought a ticket for Andole along with his daughter Trisha. He has kept his options open.
Mulugu MLA D. Seethakka has sought a renomination apart from seeking Pinakapa (ST reserved) constituency for her son Suryam.
Another aspirant, former Union Minister Balaram Naik, also sought a ticket for his son for Mahabubabad along with him apparently to take the Assembly ticket for his son and keep the Parliament constituency option for him.
Former Minister Konda Surekha and her husband and former MLC Muralidhar Rao also applied from Warangal East and Parkal respectively. She left the BRS in the last elections after the party denied a ticket for her daughter along with her.
Former MLA P. Vishnuvardhan Reddy and his sister Vijaya Reddy are seeking from Jubilee Hills and Khairatabad respectively, and being children of late P. Janardhan Reddy, they are eligible too. Vijaya Reddy is presently the Khairatabad Corporator.
Going strictly by the five years in politics, Ms. Padmavathi; Mr. Anil Yadav, son of Mr. Anjan Yadav; and Mr. Muralidhar Rao have been active in politics and the party. Moreover, Mr. Damodar’s daughter, Ms. Seethakka’s son and Mr. Jana Reddy’s sons too, are in politics in directly helping their parents.
