TRS zeros in on likely candidates for Council seat

Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is learnt to have shortlisted the names of the former Speaker of Andhra Pradesh Assembly K R Suresh Reddy, former Minister Mandava Venkateshwara Rao and others for the Legislative Council seat under the Nizamabad Local Authorities Constituency (LAC).

The Election Commission (EC) had announced the schedule for the by-elections for filling up the Council seat to be elected by the local body representatives.

The seat fell vacant after the disqualification of sitting MLC R Bhoopati Reddy by the Supreme Court. Bhoopati Reddy was disqualified for anti-party activities by the ruling TRS. The post would be for two years as Bhoopati Reddy was in the post for about four years.

According to sources, the party wants to give a chance to a leader from the same district and with this, the names of Suresh Reddy, Mandava Venkateshwara Rao, Amarnath Reddy, Mujeeb and Arikela Narsa Reddy were doing rounds for the post.

Sources said the party chief K Chandrashekar Rao wanted to send Suresh Reddy to the Council. In case Suresh Reddy is not willing to accept, the post would be given to one of the other leaders from the district, said a senior TRS leader.

Since the post is for two years, senior leaders are said to be not keen on taking the seat this time but to wait until the seats under Governor's quota fall vacant.

Three members were nominated under Governor's quota including Ramulu Naik, Naini Narasimha Reddy and Karne Prabhakar. While the term of Ramulu Naik has ended, Narasimha Reddy's term would be ending in May and Karne Prabhakar's term would be ending in June.

However, the EC is yet to declare a vacancy under the Governor's quota, and it is expected that the three seats would be filled at a time.

As per the schedule announced by the Election Commission, the notification will be issued on March 12.

The last date for filing nomination is March 19, scrutiny of the nominations would take place on March 20, last date for withdrawal of the candidature would be March 23 and polling would be held on April 7 from 8 am to 4 pm and the voters would be the representatives of local bodies.

Result would be announced on April 9. Sources said the Chief Minister may take a decision on the candidate along with the Rajya Sabha candidates in a couple of days.