Apparently faced with intense pulls and pressures, Congress tonight failed to declare its nominees for the Assembly elections in Telangana, nearly 24 hours after it called a press conference to release the list of 110 candidates.
"The list will be released this evening," Secretary of AICC Media Department Tom Vadakkan had told reporters earlier in the day after he faced a volley of questions as to why the Congress did not release the list last night after making announcement for the same.
He did not offer any explanation for the delay, while spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said it was the party's internal matter when it would release the list of candidates.
"Whether we announce the list today or tomorrow, it is our business," Singhvi remarked.
Vadakkan did not react when told by mediapersons that he was overheard at the briefing last night telling spokesman Randeep Surjewala not to release the list.
At 22.15 hours last night, Surjewala had called a press conference in Delhi to announce the list. He told the media that the party high command has cleared a list of 16 candidates for the Lok Sabha and 110 candidates for the Assembly and proceeded to announce the names.
Surjewala announced the names of 16 candidates for Lok Sabha and even as he started reading out the Assembly candidates, he stopped apparently after some urgent last minute message and the briefing was over.
Mediapersons were told that the complete list will be emailed to them at the earliest.
The delay showed that the first list of candidates for Telangana has got suspended halfway, clearly indicating that the protracted consultations, complaints and lobbying for tickets were far from over.
