HYDERABAD: Putting an end to all speculation, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Wednesday announced Gellu Srinivas Yadav as the party's candidate for the upcoming bypoll for Huzurabad Assembly constituency.
With this, the TRS became the first party to announce its candidate for the bypoll, though the Election Commission is yet to issue notification. Though former minister Etala Rajendar from the BJP is already campaigning aggressively in Huzurabad for the past two months, the BJP is yet to officially announce his candidature. The Congress too is in search of a strong candidate.
Srinivas Yadav, a 38-year-old leader, is currently serving as the state president of TRSV (TRS Vidyarthi), the student wing of the TRS.
Although several senior leaders were in the race for the party ticket, Rao opted for the young leader taking into account his active role in Telangana statehood agitation as party's student leader on Osmania University campus besides being hailing from Backward Classes and a local of Huzurabad.
Prominent leaders from other parties in Huzurabad joined the TRS recently to contest the bypoll necessitated by the resignation of sitting MLA and former minister Etala Rajender in June.
Padi Kaushik Reddy from the Congress, who gave a tough fight to the then TRS candidate Rajendar in 2018 Assembly polls, L. Ramana who quit the T-TDP chief’s post and E. Peddi Reddy from the BJP joined the TRS in July and there was speculation that one among them would get TRS ticket to contest the bypoll.
This apart, there were other senior leaders including former MP B. Vinod Kumar, Rajya Sabha member Capt. V Laxmikantha Rao's wife Sarojini Devi, Vakulabharanam Krishna Mohan Rao etc, whose names were doing the rounds as candidates for bypoll.
But, Rao surprised all by choosing Gellu Srinivas Yadav to take on his friend-turned-foe Etala Rajendar in the bypoll.
The internal surveys commissioned by the Chief Minister reportedly suggested that Kaushik Reddy, Ramana and Peddi Reddy lacked "Telangana statehood agitation" background unlike Rajendar who has the image of actively taking part in Telangana agitation of 14 years which the BJP is aggressively utilising in Huzurabad.
To counter this campaign, Chandrashekar Rao chose Yadav, who remained in the TRS since 2001, actively participated in Telangana agitation and faced police cases and jail for the cause of Telangana. Moreover, his educational background of being a research scholar in addition to holding an MA and an LLB degrees worked in his favour.
The caste and nativity equations also helped him as Yadav hails from BC community and a native of Himmatnagar village of Veenavanka mandal in Huzurabad constituency.
Gellu Srinivas Yadav, a name to reckon with
After intense political manoeuvring, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Wednesday announced the name of TRSV state president Gellu Srinivas Yadav as TRS candidate for upcoming Huzurbad bypolls.
Gellu Srinivas is a resident of Himmat Nagar of Veenkavanka mandal of Huzurabad constituency of Karimnagar district. His father Gellu Mallaiah was a former MTPC and mother Lakshmi was a former sarpanch. He completed MA, LLB and is a research student in Political Science.
Several prominent leaders including Vakulabaranam Krishna Mohan, Peddi Reddy, L. Ramana and Swargam Ravi who recently joined the TRS along with those who were in the party right from the beginning were in the hope of getting the TRS ticket to contest the bypoll.
The hopes of some of the leaders who joined the TRS party from other parties were kept alive by removing Padi Koushik Reddy from the ticket race by allotting him the MLC post.
But, finally Chandrashekar Rao, after a thorough study and considering all aspects, announced the name of Gellu Srinivas Yadav officially as he belonged to the Backward Class community and was an active participant of the separate Telangana movement.
It is learnt that Chandrashekar Rao selected Srinivas as party candidate to keep a check on his opponent and BJP candidate Etala Rajendar as the latter is going to the public with the slogan of being a Telangana activist and belonging to the BC community.
Right from his student days, Srinivas actively participated in resolving BC issues. Joining the separate Telangana movement in 2003, he played a key role as a president of TRSV, the student wing of the TRS.
As a state president of the TRSV, Srinivas participated in several movements along with Bonthu Ram Mohan, Errolla Srinivas and Balka Suman. More than 100 cases were lodged against Srinivas when he participated in the separate Telangana movement as a student leader. He even went to jail nearly 36 times.
Meanwhile, after learning that TRSV announced the name of Gellu Srinivas Yadav as the party candidate, hundreds of TRS activists celebrated by taking out rallies, burning crackers and distributing sweets.
