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Updated: Feb 25, 2019 20:30 IST

The Congress in Telangana, which has got enthusiastic response from its leaders to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, has virtually no takers for the party ticket in one parliamentary constituency — Nizamabad.

Reason: It is represented by Kalvakuntla Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

Congress leaders are admitting in private that it will be a futile attempt to contest against Kavitha, who gained complete control over the constituency in the last five years.

The reluctance of the Congress leaders to contest the Nizamabad LS seat was evident from the response received by the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee’s election committee. According to a Congress leader familiar with the matter, the PCC committee has received as many as 380 applications for 17 Lok Sabha seats — an average of 20-22 applications per seat.

Read: KCR loses cool, snaps at man who questioned status of Muslim quota

But for Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat, the committee received just one application from a local leader who is said to a non-serious contender, while several senior leaders preferred to opt out of the race.

“It clearly shows how the Congress leaders are reluctant to fight against the chief minister’s daughter,” he said.

In the recent assembly elections held in December, the TRS won all the seven assembly segments falling under Nizamabad parliamentary constituency with a huge majority.

“If the same trend continues, it will be a cake walk for Kavitha in Nizamabad LS elections, unless the Congress finds a tough candidate to fight against her,” the Congress leader said.

In 2014, Kavitha defeated two-time Congress MP Madhu Yashki Goud by a margin of over 1.67 lakh votes. This time Madhu Yashki is not keen on contesting again from Nizamabad, but wants to shift to Bhongir.

“There is a large number of Gouda community (toddy tappers) in Bhongir and hence, it will be advantageous to me,” he said.

Admitting that Nizamabad LS seat is a tough seat to win, Madhu Yashki said there was no truth in reports that there were no takers for the party ticket for the seat.

“Party ticket is not a government job to apply for. Though there are no applications for the Nizamabad seat, if the party high command decides to field a senior leader, he cannot reject it. Winning or losing is a different matter,” he said.

Initially, the Congress was contemplating fielding former assembly speaker in the combined Andhra Pradesh K R Suresh Reddy from Nizamabad LS seat, but he sprang a surprise by defecting to the TRS before the assembly elections.

It is learnt that the party is now bringing pressure on another senior leader and former irrigation minister P Sudershan Reddy to contest against Kavitha, but so far, there is no further development in this regard.