Gellu Srinivas Yadav front-runner for Huzurabad

Hyderabad: After Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao nominated Padi Kaushik Reddy for the Legislative Council, the name of Gellu Srinivas Yadav has been doing the rounds to face former minister Eatala Rajender in the Huzurabad by-election.

According to the ruling TRS leaders, being local and also heading the party's student wing TRSV, odds are in favour of Yadav, who has been with the party since the Telangana agitation. The CM on Sunday nominated Padi Kaushik Reddy to the Council under the Governor's quota with the Cabinet's approval. It was a shocking decision for many party men because Reddy had joined TRS ten days back and was expected to get the ticket.

Party leaders believe that, with the council seat going to a Reddy community leader, the TRS chief may go in for a BC leader in the by-poll. There are a large number of BCs, including all castes, like Mudiraj, Padmashali, Gouds in the constituency.

The leaders said though there were many able BC candidates in the party, Yadav is likely to be the lucky one. The other names in the BCs include L Ramana, the former TTDP leader, who joined TRS party recently. However, being a non-local is a negative factor for him. The CM had announced that he would be given a bigger responsibility in future, keeping in view the large number of weavers in the district.

Names of A Veereshalingam, S Ravi and P Mallaiah are also doing the rounds. One of the founder members of TRSV, Yadav has good name for his dedication towards the Telangana agitation. He had faced over 100 cases. If the ticket is issued to him it would be like honouring his services as student leader, said a senior party leader.