HYDERABAD: As the notification for the election to the two Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana is likely to be issued next month, the question on everybody’s mind is: Who would make the cut?
The TRS is comfortably placed to corner the two seats as it has more than enough strength in the Assembly. The Opposition parties, the BJP and the Congress do not have numbers to even file nomination papers, leave alone winning the seats.
The pink party leaders are anxiously awaiting Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s decision. Though the TRS is not short of aspirants for the two seats, they have not been able to directly approach the party supremo as access to him is difficult. “Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao himself will decide the candidates after considering all the options. No one can lobby with him for the seats,” a TRS leader said.
The tenure of the two Rajya Sabha members from the State, Garikapati Mohan Rao (BJP) and Dr KVP Ramachandra Rao (Congress) will come to an end on April 9. They were allotted to Telangana, after the bifurcation of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. The term of another member K Keshava Rao (TRS) will also end on April 9. However, Keshava Rao, currently the TRS secretary-general, was allotted to Andhra Pradesh.
Main aspirants
Among the TRS leaders in the race for the two seats are Chief Minister’s daughter K Kavitha, TRS secretary-general K Keshava Rao, former MP B Vinod Kumar, former deputy CM K Srihari and former home minister Naini Narasimha Reddy.As Vinod Kumar was recently appointed as the State Planning Board vice-chairman, his candidature may not be considered for the Rajya Sabha post, sources said. If the TRS president wants to have representation from the SCs, then he would consider Srihari’s candidature.
Meanwhile, Naini has already told his aides that he would go to the Rajya Sabha soon as KCR had promised him a seat at the time of expansion of the State Cabinet. Though Kavitha is interested in taking over the role of a Rajya Sabha member, she has not approached her father yet. After her defeat in the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, Kavitha has taken a break from politics. She has told her close confidantes that she would abide by her father’s choice.
The officials are expecting that election notification will be issued in the first week of March. If a candidate wants to file nomination papers, he or she requires at least ten signatures from the MLAs proposing his or her candidature. The main Opposition Congress has only six MLAs in the Assembly and so it cannot even think of fielding a candidate.After the polls, all the seven Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana will be in TRS’ kitty. Of seven seats, the TRS has five members -- Banda Prakash, Joginipally Santosh Kumar, V Lakshmikantha Rao, Dharmapuri Srinivas and B Lingaih Yadav.
However, Srinivas has kept himself away from TRS party activities in the recent past. His term will expire on June 21, 2022.It remains to be seen whether TRS will give one Rajya Sabha seat out of two to its friendly party AIMIM. If the TRS offers one seat to AIMIM, then the pink party will have six members in Rajya Sabha.