Parties gear up for MLC polls

Hyderabad: Political tensions would escalate in Telangana once again as the Congress, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are gearing up for the upcoming Member of Legislative Council (MLC) elections scheduled to be held on February 27. The Election Commission has announced the schedule for elections for Medak- Nizamabad- Adilabad- Karimnagar Graduates', Medak- Nizamabad- Adilabad- Karimnagar Teachers' and Warangal- Khammam - Nalgonda Teachers' constituencies. The last date for filing nominations is February 10 while the last date of withdrawal of nominations is February 13.

While the Congress party is making some fast moves to retain the Karimnagar graduate seat, the BRS and BJP want to prove its strong presence in the elections.

Soon after the announcement of the schedule, TSUTF and TPTF teachers unions announced the incumbent MLC A Narsi Reddy as candidate from Warangal- Khammam- Nalgonda teachers constituency and Y Ashok Kumar will contest from Medak- Nizamabad- Adilabad – Karimnagar teachers’ segment.

The BRS is scouting for a potential candidate to give a tough fight to the two rival parties which held sway in the Graduate constituency of Karimnagar- Adilabad- Nizamabad - Medak and Warangal districts.

Congress senior leader and Sitting MLC T Jeevan Reddy from the graduate constituency is keen to contest the election for the second time from the same constituency. The party leadership also inclined to give tickets to Reddy after consulting the AICC leaders. A resolution to support Jeevan Reddy would be sent to the party high command for final approval.

The BJP leadership already held a series of meetings to mobilise the cadre to seek the support of the graduates to win the seat. Local BJP leaders and MPs of Karimnagar, Medak and Adilabad had begun holding meetings with the newly enrolled graduate voters in their respective Lok Sabha constituencies .

The BJP also named Komaraiah from Peddapalli for the MLC teachers’ constituency (Karimnagar-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Medak), Puli Sarotham Reddy of Warangal for the teachers’ constituency (Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam), and Anji Reddy for the graduates’ constituency (Karimnagar-Nizamabad-Adilabad-Medak). The two MLCs from teachers constituencies K Raghotham Reddy (Karimnagar) and A Narsireddy ( Nalgonda) are retiring in March.