Congress CEC meeting begins in Delhi for Telangana Assembly elections

New Delhi: The Congress Election Committee meeting on Telangana started on Friday at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) office in New Delhi.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge chaired the CEC meeting. Party’s prominent leaders like Sonia Gandhi, and Salman Khurshid along with others were present at the meeting.

However, Rahul Gandhi did not attend the CEC meeting today. This is the second consecutive meeting that the Congress leader has skipped.

The meeting will focus on finalising candidates for the remaining seats in the poll-bound state, Telangana.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Congress's poll in-charge Manikrao Thakare held a screening committee meeting on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, he said all decisions on the remaining seats would be finalised during the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting on Thursday.

"Today, there was a screening committee meeting in which discussions were held about various matters with regard to the upcoming elections. We will put forth all the suggestions from this meeting at the meeting of the party's Central Election Committee (CEC) tomorrow. At the meeting, we held discussions on all the seats. The list of candidates for the remaining seats would be declared after the CEC meeting."

"However, all such decisions would be taken by the CEC. Our responsibility is merely to put forth our views and suggestions before the CEC," he added.

The Congress is likely to release its second list of candidates, comprising 35-45 names, for the Telangana state Assembly polls after the meeting of the CEC. 

The list is likely to include former MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy, who quit the BJP on Thursday, and will join the Congress today. Reddy is likely to contest against Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. 

The Congress had declared its first list, of 55 candidates, on October 15. 

In the previous Assembly election in 2018, the BRS won 88 of the 119 seats, hogging 47.4 per cent of the total vote share.

The Congress came in a distant second with just 19 seats.

The counting of votes for Telangana Assembly will be held along with those of four other poll-bound states on December 3.