A contest has become inevitable in the elections for the Telangana Council for the MLA quota seats, with 7 candidates entering the fray for the six seats.
A contest has become inevitable in the elections for the Telangana Legislative Council for the MLA quota seats scheduled on June 1, with seven candidates entering the poll fray for the six seats that have fallen vacant.
Since today was the last day for the filing of nominations, five nominees of the ruling TRS and one person each from the Congress and the TDP filed their papers before Legislature Secretary Raja Sadaram, who is the Returning Officer for the elections.
The five TRS candidates are Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari, minister Thummala Nageshwar Rao, former Deputy Chairman of the Council Neti Vidyasagar Rao, former MLC K Yadav Reddy and B Venkateshwarulu.
While Akula Lalitha, a former Telangana Mahila Congress President, filed her papers as the Congress nominee, V Narender Reddy, a former MLA of the TDP, filed his nomination as the party nominee.
The ruling TRS basing on its strength in the Assembly can easily win four seats, but decided to field a fifth candidate in the last minute and thus necessitated a contest. The decision of the ruling party to field a fifth candidate was obviously intended to push the TDP to the wall as KCR seemed determined to scuttle the chances of the yellow brigade.
The polling will be held on June 1.
After tension-filled high drama enacted in the premises of the Telangana Assembly with both the TRS and the TDP engaged in serious consultations to finalize their respective nominees, and the ruling party playing a mind game over the issue before fielding the fifth candidate, the filing of nomination process was completed at the eleventh hour.
It is pertinent to note here that four out of the five candidates being fielded by the TRS are those who had earlier defected from other parties.
Kadiam Srihari, who originally belonged to the TDP, switched his loyalty before the 2014 elections and joined the TRS. He contested for the Warangal Lok Sabha seat on a TRS ticket and won with a good majority. However, he joined the KCR cabinet as a Deputy Chief Minister after the then Deputy Chief Minister Rajaiah was sacked by the Chief Minister following corruption charges.
Since Srihari is not a member of either the Assembly or the Council, and he has to get elected to one of the Houses within six months to continue to remain in the KCR cabinet, he is being fielded to contest the Council elections.
Similarly, Thummala Nageshwar Rao, also a member of the KCR cabinet, is neither a member of the Assembly or Council. Thus he, too, is entering the election fray in order to retain his ministerial post.
Nageshwar Rao, who had served as a minister in the erstwhile TDP regime, contested and lost on a TDP ticket in the 2014 elections. He later joined the TRS and immediately became a minister.
The other two TRS candidates - Neti Vidyasagar Rao and Yadav Reddy - also defected - from the Congress. Rao served as a Deputy Chairman of the Council and Yadav Reddy was a Congress MLC in the past, and both were selected as TRS nominees for switching their loyalties.
The TRS' fifth candidate Venkateshwarlu has been a TRS loyalist from the beginning.
Though many seniors and stalwarts of the Congress including those who had served as ministers and as party chiefs vied for the lone party ticket, the Congress High Command gave a big jolt to all by selecting a woman from the BC community, Akula Lalitha.
COnsequently, the President of the Greater Hyderabad District Congress Committee, Danam Nagender, who had even served as a minister in the erstwhile Congress regime, resigned from the post and the party in a huff for being denied the ticket.
It might be mentioned here that Nagender had earned notoriety for his gimmicks in trying to attract the attention of party bosses by flooding the city, especially at important junctions, with multi-colored posters and huge cutouts of the powers-that-be like Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and other senior functionaries, for grabbing a party ticket or a berth in the ministry.
He tried this gimmick even recently during Rahul Gandhi's padayatra in the Adilabad district. Expecting the Gandhi scion to visit Hyderabad en route Nirmal, Nagender, with an eye on the upcoming MLC elections, flooded the city roads with huge posters and cutouts welcoming Gandhi. Unfortunately for him, Gandhi's drive through the city was cancelled.
Disappointment over the denial of the MLC ticket made him quit the party. However, Congress circles feel that it was not an unexpected move as Nagender seemed to have been waiting in the wings to switch loyalties shortly.
The candidates belonging to all the three parties - TRS, Congress and BJP - filed their nominations amidst pomp and shows of strength with their supporters. The TRS nominees along with their party leaders and workers, and leaders of the MIM, first marched in a rally to the Martyrs Memorial, paid homage, and then went in a procession to file their papers.
Earlier, there was an altercation between the supporters of Kadiam Srihari and the police when the overzealous pink cadre tried to gatecrash the Assembly premises. (NSS)