The Congress high command, which decided to field a candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections from Telangana though it does not have the numbers needed to win a seat, has finalized the name of former union minister Balaram Naik.
Naik will file his nomination on Monday, the last day for submission of nominations.
Three Rajya Sabha seats in Telangana are going up for elections this year. Going by the strength of the political parties in the Telangana Assembly, the TRS will win two Rajya Sabha seats on its own. It will win the third seat with the support of its ally the MIM as the latter's boss Asaduddin Owaisi announced his party's support to the TRS.
The Congress had won 21 MLA seats in the 2014 elections, but seven of them defected to the TRS and another two died. The TRS had won those two seats in the ensuing by-polls. The Congress has 12 MLAs now, and according to political analysts has no chance of winning a Rajya Sabha seat with that strength, but the election will help it trouble the defecting MLAs.