Telangana Council All Set To Witness Major Changes

The Telangana State Legislative Council is all set to witness major changes in the next 2-3 months.

19 out of the 40 seats will be replaced with new faces, and the election of the new members will completely change the political composition of the Legislative Council, making the Telangana Rashtra Samithi a dominant force in terms of numbers.

The process is on to elect two new members for the graduates' constituencies. Currently those seats are held by Prof K Nageshwara (Mahabubnagar - Ranga Reddy - Hyderabad) and K Dilip Kumar (Warangal - Khammam - Nalgonda). The elections for new members for these will be held on March 22.

The terms of another 19 members will end in the next two months. These include seven MLCs who were elected under the MLAs' quota. Their terms will end on March 29. They include D Srinivas, Hafiz Peer Shabbir Ahmed, K R Amos, K Yadav Reddy and S Rajalingam of the Congress, and B Laxminarayana and B Venkateshwarulu of the TDP. However, the five MLCs other than Srinivas and Shabbir Ahmed had joined the TRS only a few months ago.

After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, one MLC seat under the MLAs' quota got eliminated. Therefore, elections will be held for six new MLCs under this quota. Going by the parties' strengths in the Assembly, the TRS will get four seats, while the Congress and the TDP-BJP combine will get one seat each.

The term of B Venkat Rao of the Congress, who was nominated by the Governor, is also coming to an end. Rao too had joined the TRS after it came to power.

Seven other MLCs who were elected under the local bodies' quota will retire on May 1. They are S Jagadishwar Reddy (Congress - Mahabubnagar), Bhupal Reddy (Congress - Medak), Bhanuprasad Rao (Congress - Karimnagar), Nethi Vidyasagar Rao (Congress - Nalgonda), P Narendra Reddy (TDP - Ranga Reddy) and A Narsa Reddy (TDP - Nizamabad). Except for Narsa Reddy, the MLCs are all currently with the TRS.

While elections for the seats of Adilabad and Warangal under the local bodies' quota could not be held due to court cases, those for Mahabubnagar, Ranga Reddy and Karimnagar can go to the polls only with the approval of the central government.

In summary, again, the 40-member Telangana Legislative Council will undergo a major revamp in the next 2-3 months, and almost half of the members will be new faces. (INN)