Congress not to drag YSR into poll campaign

                                                                                              
HYDERABAD: The Congress Coordination Committee on Sunday deliberated on the list of candidates for the bypolls and while chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana are slated to leave for New Delhi on Monday to get the names finalized by the party high command, it was decided that the Congress poll campaign will steer away from criticizing former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

Apart from the CM and Botsa, those present at the meeting that took place here on Sunday evening included AICC general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, deputy chief minister C Damodar Raja Narasimha, Rajya Sabha MP Chiranjeevi, former PCC chief and MLC D Srinivas and former minister Md Shabbir Ali.

According to sources, the names of almost all the 18 candidates have been more or less finalized though that did not stop lobbying by various leaders including minister Galla Aruna Kumari for her son Jay Galla for the Tirupati assembly seat. The leaders dwelt at length on the three assembly seats in Kadapa district, Rayachoti, Rajampet and Railway Kodur. For the Nellore Lok Sabha seat, the candidature of Rajya Sabha member T Subbirami Reddy has already been finalized.

In an interesting development, newly inducted Rajya Sabha MP and former minister Renuka Chowdhary called on the chief minister on Sunday morning and was closeted with him for over an hour. After the meeting, Renuka told the media it was a courtesy call.

Meanwhile, Telangana Congress MPs on Sunday met at the residence of MP Vivekananda. The meeting assumed significance in the wake of moves by the MPs to intensify their agitation for the separate state which includes breaking away from the Congress and floating a regional outfit. The leaders went ahead with their meeting despite Rajya Sabha MP Palvai Govardhan Reddy conveying to them that Congress president Sonia Gandhi was unhappy with them for disrupting the parliamentary proceedings in support of their T demand. Later, the Telangana MPs decided to boycott the parliament session tomorrow. 
from times of india