Hanumakonda: Congress can field former minister Konda Surekha in the Huzurabad assembly by-election. Sources say the Congress think tank is absolutely certain that the 55-year-old four-time MLA Surekha will take on the might of BJP's Eatala Rajendra and ruling TRS candidate Gelu Srinivas Yadav. It's said that the Congress lost the luxury of going through too many options to zero in on its nominee ever since Padi Kaushik Reddy shifted his loyalty to the TRS. Although he lost twice to Eatala Rajender (then in TRS) from Huzurabad, Kaushik Reddy was able to emerge as a competent leader in the region. 

Against this backdrop, the names of Konda Surekha and Dommati Sambaiah from erstwhile Warangal and Karimnagar DCC chief Kavvampally Satyanarayana have come under the scanner of the Congress leadership. With both the TRS and the BJP banking on the BC card in the bypoll, the Congress leadership reportedly stuck to the same idea of fielding a candidate from the backward communities. The leadership which pondered on selecting its nominee for Huzurabad bypoll in Hyderabad on Saturday reportedly finalised Konda Surekha's candidature, according to party sources. 

The TPCC president, A Revanth Reddy, is likely to announce Konda Surekha's candidature at the 'Dalit Girijana Atma Gourava Dandora' to be held in Ibrahimpatnam on August 18. The Congress thinktank is of the opinion that Konda Surekha could muster the support of Padmashali community which she belongs to, apart from garnering the votes of her husband and former MLC Konda Murali's community, Munnuru Kapu. Together, the two communities have around 60,000 votes in the constituency. 

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