Vijayashanti, Addanki Dayakar, Shankar Naik, Dasoju To Be MLCs

The Congress today announced the names of Addanki Dayakar, Kethavath Shankar Naik and actress Vijayashanti as its candidates for the MLC seats under the MLA quota for which elections are scheduled.

Of the five seats to go for elections, the Congress is guaranteed to win three based on its strength in the Assembly, and will win a fourth too due to the support of the ten turncoat BRS MLAs and the seven AIMIM MLAs in the Assembly. It has however given the fourth seat to ally CPI, which has nominated Satyam Yadav for the seat.

The BRS is guaranteed to win one seat based on its strength in the Assembly, and has given the ticket to Dr Dasoju Sravan, its spokesperson.

The elections are scheduled for March 20, but are now infructuous given that all members are unopposed.

The Congress has balanced caste pulls in its picks - Addanki Dayakar belongs to the SC category, Kethavath Shankar Naik is from a ST and Vijayashanti is from a BC.

Vijayashanti is a surprise pick, given her extremely fickle loyalties - she started off with the BJP in 1998, then started her own party (Telangana Thalli) during the Telangana statehood agitation, then merged the party with the BRS, then shifted to the Congress, then to the BJP again, and is now back to the Congress. She was a Lok Sabha MP (from the BRS) during 2009-14.