HYDERABAD: The Telangana Congress unit has approached the national leadership with strong demands asking the party to field Rahul Gandhi from Nalgonda constituency in the state. A stronghold of the Congress, Telangana has seven assembly constituencies. In the 2019 election, Congress won in six places, thus the factors are conducive for Rahul to try a new terrain in Telangana soil. The demand also comes at a time when the leadership is still ambiguous about Rahul’s candidacy from Wayanad.
Earlier, the Telangana Congress Committee had passed a resolution asking Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to contest in Telangana. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy personally invited Sonia Gandhi to contest from the Khammam seat. The offer soon turned towards Rahul after Sonia Gandhi decided to not contest the LS polls this time.
Former PCC President Uttam Kumar Reddy won in Nalgonda in the last election. Khammam is the constituency where Renuka Chowdhury of Congress lost to Namma Nageswara Rao of BRS last time. The Malkajgiri constituency won by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy in 2019 is currently considered unsafe for the Congress. In the last assembly elections, BRS won all the constituencies except the Uppal constituency in Malkajgiri.