BRS not to contest MLC polls, to support AIMIM

HYDERABAD: The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) will most likely stay away from the March 13 elections to two seats of the Telangana state Legislative Council (MLC) — one from the teachers’ constituency and another from the local authorities’ constituency.

Although BRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has not made an official announcement, but given that this would be the first election in the state after the TRS was rebranded as the BRS in December last year the party leadership's unwillingness to contest has sparked a heated debate in political circles as to the reason for the decision.

The party leadership has reportedly decided to support the AIMIM candidate for the Hyderabad local authorities’ constituency, and the Progressive Recognised Teachers Union (PRTU-TS) nominee for the Hyderabad-Ranga Reddy-Mahbubnagar teachers’ constituency, party insiders informed.

In the 2017 MLC elections, the TRS (now BRS) had similary backed an AIMIM candidate for the Hyderabad local authorities constituency and a PRTU-TS candidate for the teachers' constituency. The CM intends to use the same political approach this time as well although he may seek a different candidate for the teachers' constituency, sources said.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced the schedule for the MLC elections on February 9, with the last date for nominations to be filed on February 23 and the last date for withdrawal of nominations on February 27.

Polling will take place on March 13, while vote counting will be conducted on March 16. The term of Mahbubnagar-Ranga Reddy-Hyderabad Teachers’ constituency MLC Katepally Janardhan Reddy and Hyderabad Local Authorities’ constituency MLC  Syed Aminul Hasan Jafri will end on March 29, and May 1 respectively.

Meanwhile, the EC has published the final voters list for the teachers' constituency on December 31, 2022, which included a total of 29,501 registered voters. Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj on Monday said that as part of continuous updation of the electoral rolls, about 1,131 fresh applications were received, and will be scrutinised by the officials to grant approval. This will form the supplementary electoral roll for the teachers’ constituency, which will be released on February 23.