HYDERABAD: The Congress party has more or less finalised its candidates for the Zilla Parishad chairpersons' posts, but did not release the list as it is making frantic efforts to sort out internal differences in a few districts.

DCC presidents will announce the names at 8. 30 am on Monday, a few hours ahead of the election of the ZP chairpersons and vice-chairpersons in all the 22 districts. APCC chief K. Keshava Rao who was closeted with senior leaders giving final touches to the list later met Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy on the latter's return from a holiday in Goa on Sunday.

Hectic consultations

On a day of hectic consultations, Dr. Keshava Rao met TRS leaders K. Chandrasekhara Rao and A. Narendra to seek their support for Congress nominees in Karimnagar and Warangal. The TRS is insisting on allotment of Karimnagar ZP post as a pre-condition to extending support to the Congress elsewhere. But the Congress is in no mood to concede anything beyond the vice-chairpersons' posts in Karimnagar and Warangal.

Horse-trading has begun and both Congress and TDP are wooing members of rival parties and smaller groups. The APCC has reportedly decided to field Ms. T. Kavitha in Anantapur where the TDP is ahead by three seats and is wooing a few TDP members in Ranga Reddy district. Similarly, the TDP has decided to field Suddala Devaiah and Satyavati Rathod respectively in Karimnagar and Warangal where it is banking upon TRS' support. It has reportedly finalised the candidature of Rathod Ramesh (Adilabad), N. Varalaxmi (Anantapur) and Sunita Reddy (Ranga Reddy).

Courtesy call

The PCC chief also paid a courtesy call on CPI general secretary A. B. Bardhan, besides meeting State party leaders S. Sudhakar Reddy and K. Narayana who are seeking the Nalgonda ZP chairmanship for their party. Here too, the Congress is willing to offer only vice-chairperson's post.

The PCC is understood to have finalised the following candidates for 15 Zilla Parishads: P. Rajasekharam (Srikakulam), Botsa Jhansilaxmi (Vizianagaram), G. Sreeramamurthy (Visakhapatnam), Ch. Venu (East Godavari), K. Nageswara Rao (Krishna), Jayamma (Guntur), Arunamma (Prakasam), Goverdhan Reddy (Nellore), Jyoti Reddy (Kadapa), Venkatswamy (Kurnool), Damodar Reddy (Mahbubnagar), K.Narayana Reddy (Nalgonda), Balaiah (Medak), Mohan (Karimnagar) and Dhanwati (Warangal). The party is grappling with dissension in West Godavari and Chittoor.

Dr. Keshava Rao told reporters his talks with TRS and CPI leaders were satisfactory, adding that he had not contacted the CPI (M) to discuss the tangle in Khammam.

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