Over dozen Congress leaders in race for two MLC seats in Telangana

Hyderabad: Over a dozen Congress leaders are in the race for the separate elections to the two Legislative Council seats under the MLAs’ quota, given that the victory of the party’s victory is a foregone conclusion due to its House strength of 65, including a CPI legislator.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) is set to issue the notification for by-polls to the two MLC seats on January 11, with January 18 as the last date to file nominations.

Among the aspirants are prominent leaders who contested the recent Assembly polls but were defeated and those who were denied Assembly tickets due to political and caste equations.

Senior leaders Mohd Ali Shabbir, Ramreddy Damodar Reddy, T. Jagga Reddy, Anjan Kumar Yadav, S.A. Sampath Kumar, and Mohd Azharuddin, who contested recent Assembly polls and lost, are seeking MLC nominations.

TPCC working president B. Mahesh Kumar Goud, Addanki Dayakar, former minister G. Chinna Reddy, Patel Ramesh Reddy, NSUI Telangana president Balmoor Venkat, and Youth Congress president Shiva Sena Reddy, who were denied Assembly tickets, are also seeking MLC nominations, reminding that the party leadership its promise to this effect.

Congress sources said that the party's high command was in favour of nominating leaders who were denied tickets, instead of opting for leaders who lost the Assembly polls.

They said TPCC president and Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy gave indications to this effect and said prominent leaders who lost recent Assembly polls will be considered for MLC nominations in other categories, such as Governor's quota, graduate MLC, and local bodies MLC.

Sources added that since Revanth Reddy was to leave for Davos in Switzerland to take part in the World Economic Forum from January 15 to 20, the names of the candidates will be announced before Sankranti.

There are also two MLC vacancies under the Governor's quota, for which TJAC chairman Prof Kodandaram is being considered as one of the candidates. These will be filled later.

The Chief Minister proposed to accommodate leaders who miss out on MLC nominations as chairpersons of multiple state government-run corporations. The Chief Minister plans to fill all these nominated posts by the end of this month, with the approval of the party's high command.