BRS fields sister of late MLA for Secunderabad Cantonment by-election

Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has announced Lasya Nivedita, sister of sitting MLA Nanditha who died in a road accident in February, as its candidate for the by-election to the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly constituency.

BRS President and former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday approved the candidature of Nivedita. The main opposition party hopes to capitalize on the sympathy perceived to have built up, following Nanditha’s death within three months after her election in the 2023 Assembly polls.

The by-election to Secunderabad Cantonment, one of the Assembly segments of Malkajgiri Lok Sabha constituency, is scheduled to be held along with the Lok Sabha polls on May 13.

Nanditha, 37, who died in a car crash near Hyderabad on February 23, was the daughter of BRS leader and five-time MLA from Secunderabad constituency, G. Sayanna, who had passed away on February 19 last year due to illness.

She had defeated her nearest rival, Narayanan Sri Ganesh of the BJP by a margin of 17,169 votes. He recently joined the ruling Congress and it named Sri Ganesh as its candidate for the bypoll.

The by-election is crucial for the Congress, which has a slender majority in the Assembly and will be looking to make inroads into Hyderabad as it drew a blank in the state capital in the 2023 polls. The Congress had won 64 seats in the 119-member Assembly but drew a blank in the Greater Hyderabad region, which elects 24 MLAs.

The by-election is also important for Congress as Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy was elected from Malkajgiri Lok Sabha seat in 2019.