Former Hyderabad Mayor and Congress leader Banda Karthika Reddy, along with her husband Chandra Reddy, on Thursday sat in protest outside party chief Raul Gandhi's residence after she was denied a ticket to contest the forthcoming Telangana assembly elections.
Speaking to ANI, Reddy said, "The both of us work for the party, my husband and me. We have done a lot of work for the party's progress in the Secunderabad constituency. My husband used to work in the NSUI Youth Congress, following which I entered the local bodies after my division reservation. The Congress gave me a chance and I became the Mayor."
She further stated that the party denied her a chance to contest the 2014 elections as only sitting Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA) were being given tickets, adding that they also did not uphold their promise of giving her a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) ticket.
"Now that the elections are around again, they said they will conduct a survey (for selecting candidates), to which I agreed. I topped every list when the results came. This morning, around 4 AM, I went to Rahul Ji's house to book an appointment with him as my name did not appear in two candidate lists. Then I got a call and it was confirmed that they are getting a candidate from outside," Reddy added.
The Congress leader, who was elected as the first woman Mayor of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation in 2009, said that she has given 30 years of dedicated service to the party, despite which she was overlooked.
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"There are 24 constituencies in Greater Hyderabad, I overcame the challenges and became the Mayor. They are not giving me a chance when they should be encouraging women. I don't know why Uttam Reddy sahab is not giving me the chance," Reddy said.
Reddy was later detained by the police.
The Congress had released its list of 65 and 10 candidates on Monday and Wednesday respectively. The state will go to polls on December 7, while the results will be announced on December 11.
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