Sitting members likely to get another term

Hyderabad: Majority of the members of Legislative Council elected under the local body quota are likely to get another term as the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is said to be in favour of retaining the members.

According to party sources, though the elections are going to be held for 12 seats, the ruling party is likely to continue with a majority of the members and may change a couple of them. The party leaders said that since many of them are on different posts, the party would want to continue them as members for another term. Among the members retiring in January, V Bhoopal Reddy is presently the chairman of the Legislative Council and the party leaders opine that he may continue for another term.

Similarly, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's daughter and former MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha is also slated to get another term. Kavitha's term was for 13 months and now she would be again proposed as the party candidate from the Nizamabad Local Authorities Constituency (LAC). Members Bhanu Prasad Rao and K Damodar Reddy are government whips in the council and the leaders expect that they would also get another term. Pochampally Srinivas Reddy from Warangal is also slated to get another term. He is a friend of TRS working president KT Rama Rao.

Senior party leader and two-time MLC Naradasu Laxman may also be given the ticket given his seniority in the party. It would be interesting to see whether the party would give another term to T Chinnapa Reddy as the Chief Minister had promised MLC seat to Koti Reddy, who was aspiring for ticket during the Nagarjunsagar bypoll. Sources said that one of the members from Mahbubnagar Kasireddy Narayan Reddy may not get the chance as the party leaders locally have been demanding that there should be one representative from each of the two Lok Sabha segments. Presently, both Kasireddy Narayan Reddy and Damodar Reddy are from Nagarkurnool Lok Sabha segment. The party leaders wanted one MLC for the Mahbubnagar Lok Sabha segment. Party leaders said that the Chief Minister would take a call by seeing caste equations before omitting leaders from the list.

The party is slated to get all the 12 seats going by its strength in the local bodies as the party has won a majority of municipalities and Zilla Parishads. It is learnt that the Chief Minister has alerted the Ministers on keeping the group intact to ensure that voters do not cross over. The voters comprise councillors, MPTCs and ZPTC members.