Biennial polls for Rajya Sabha on March 26 : TRS leaders Kavitha, Ponguleti, KR Suresh Reddy vie for 2 seats

Hyderabad: The ruling TRS is back into election mode as the Election Commission on Tuesday announced the schedule for the conduct of biennial elections to 55 seats across the country. Two of them are from Telangana.

The two Rajya Sabha seats that will fall vacant are that of Congress MP KVP Ramachander Rao and another MP from TDP G Rammohan Rao. Rammohan Rao joined the BJP recently.

According to the schedule, the Commission will issue notification on March 6 and the elections will be held on March 26. The counting of votes will be held on the same day. The last date for the submission of the nominations is March 13.

Scrutiny of the nominations will be held on March 16 and the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is March 18. Since the TRS is set to win the two seats, competition among aspirants is very high. It is learnt that senior leader KR Suresh Reddy and Khammam MP P Srinivas Reddy are among the aspirants for one of the two seats.

It is said that Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had assured them of giving suitable posts to them in the party. Srinivas Reddy, it may be added, did not contest either the Assembly or the Lok Sabha elections.

Political circles say that while these two leaders are front runners for one seat, the second one may go to KCR's daughter Kavitha in recognition of her initiatives to revive Telangana culture.

Sources said that senior leaders and former ministers N Narasimha Reddy, T Nageshwara Rao and Kadiyam Srihari are also in the race for MP post.