Rajya Sabha polls today; TRS all smiles

​Hyderabad: Stage is set for Rajya Sabha polls on Friday for filling three seats from the State. It is ‘advantage TRS’ as the ruling party is slated to get all the seats by virtue of its strength in the Assembly.

There are four candidates in the fray for the three vacant seats going for polling on Friday. While the ruling TRS has fielded J Santosh Kumar, B Lingaiah Yadav and B Prakash Mudiraj, the Congress has fielded P Balram Naik.
The TRS is sitting happy with the support of 97 members enough for the three candidates to secure victory. The TRS members include (65 of TRS, 7 of AIMIM, 12 TDP, 7 Congress, 3 YSRCP, 2 BSP, 1 CPI member shifting loyalties). 

The Congress, on other hand, is left with only 10 members as two of their MLAs were disqualified for unruly behaviour in the Assembly. (Earlier the party had 23 MLAs. Two MLAs died and the party lost the by-polls, seven MLAs joined TRS, 2 members K Venkat Reddy and S A Sampath disqualified).

The BJP, which has five members and the TDP which has 2 members have decided to stay away from the elections on Friday. There is one CPM member and one independent member. It is expected that the independent member is likely to vote to the Congress. It would be interesting to see what Revanth Reddy would do on Friday as he resigned from his seat but is still the member of the House as per the Telangana Legislature website. 

The TRS would need 90 votes to get their three candidates elected and with the support of seven members of AIMIM, the victory looks certain. Each candidate needs to secure 30 seats. If there is any cross voting, the second preference votes might come into play. 

To get prepared for the elections, the TRS has taken up mock polling in Telangana Bhavan and in TRSLP office. Sources said Adilabad, Nizamabad and Karimnagar MLAs have been asked to vote for Santosh, Nalgonda, Rangareddy, Mahbubnagar and Hyderabad MLAs have been asked to vote for B Lingaiah Yadav and Warangal, Khammam, Medak and some MLAs from Hyderabad would be voting for B Prakash. 

The voting would take place between 9 am and 4 pm. The Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar visited Assembly premises and took stock of the preparations. Legislature Secretary  V Narsimhacharyulu has been appointed returning officer and Deputy Secretary Durga Prasad has been appointed Assistant Returning Officer. The election would be held at Committee Hall No. 1.