Telugu Desam, YSRC ignore weaker sections in selecting Rajya Sabha candidates

Hyderabad: Both the ruling party and the main opposition party in AP have ignored the weaker sections in selecting Rajya Sabha candidates. Both parties have given preference to forward communities. The YSR Congress Party has selected a Reddy candidate and the TD has selected Kamma and Velama candidates. The YSR Congress candidate is Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy who has already filed his nomination.

AP Chief Minister and TD national president N Chandrababu Naidu held a party strategy committee meeting of ministers and senior leaders on Saturdy to decide the party’s two candidates for the Rajya Sabha. According to sources, Mr Naidu had proposed three kinds of combinations: OC+ BC, OC+ SC, and BC+SC. One of these three combinations will be selected and announced on Sunday, he had said.

But, surprisingly, both the candidates finally chosen were OC. One of them, C.M. Ramesh, belongs to the Velama community from Kadapa in Rayalaseema region. He is already a Rajya Sabha MP so this will be his second term. He retires on April 2, 2018. He has the backing of senior party leaders. The second candidate is Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar who has come as a surprise for TD leaders. Mr Kumar is from the Kamma community in Krishna district.