Supporters of D Ram Reddy, who was a top contender for the party ticket, created a disturbance at Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad. They were protesting against the decision to nominate former Malakpet MLA Malreddy Rangareddy from Ibrahimpatnam. The supporters blamed PCC chief A Revanth Reddy for this decision and burned his flexes. They accused Revanth Reddy of ignoring the clear indication that Ram Reddy was the stronger candidate.
The supporters demanded that the party high command review the decision and give the ticket to Ram Reddy instead. Ram Reddy expressed his frustration, stating that Malreddy Rangareddy was nominated despite not meeting the criteria, including the Udaipur declaration. He also highlighted that he was at the top of the list according to surveys, while Malreddy had lost three consecutive elections and betrayed the party by joining BSP. Ram Reddy pointed out the significant age difference between him (43 years old) and Malreddy (73 years old).
Initially, it was believed that Ram Reddy was the preferred choice among senior party members when the second list was announced. However, Revanth Reddy continued to support Malreddy as the candidate. In 2018, Malreddy lost to Machireddy Kishan Reddy from BRS by less than 400 votes, despite running as a BSP candidate. In the 2014 election, he contested on a Congress party ticket and received over 47,000 votes in a close contest against Manchireddy, who received over 56,000 votes running as a TDP candidate.
