KCR begins exercise to fill 7 MLC seats

Hyderabad: With seven seats in the Legislative Council to fall vacant in three to five months, BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao has already begun the exercise to find suitable candidates.

KCR is weighing the caste and religious equations while identifying the possible candidates. The seven Council seats which will have to be filled include three under the MLA quota, two in Governor's quota and one each in the local body and teacher's quota.

The members who are going to retire include Naveen Rao, Gangadhar Goud and A Krishna Reddy (under MLA quota - retiring on March 29), K Janardhan Reddy (Teachers), MA Farooq Hussain, D Rajeshwar Rao (Governor's quota - retiring on May 27), Syed Aminul Hasan Jafri (Local Bodies -- retiring on May 27).

Sources said that many of those who could not get party ticket during the 2014 and 2018 Assembly elections in the state and 2019 Lok Sabha elections were aspiring for the MLC posts.

It is being said that the possibility of a second chance to Navin Rao, who is from the Velama community, D Rajeshwar Rao representing the Christian community and MA Farooq Hussain from the Muslim community may be re-nominated. Farooq Hussain is from Medak district and is backed by Finance Minister T Harish Rao.

Among other aspirants are those who joined the party on the eve of Munugode elections like Dasoju Sravan Kumar, Bikshamaiah Goud from Alair in Nalgonda and K Swamy Goud.

From the Teachers constituency, MLC K Janardhan Reddy is likely to be the party choice. However, the PRTU has already decided on changing the candidate and taking up the exercise.

MLC Gangadhar Goud may also get another term, sources said. The party would be supporting the candidature of the MIM candidate Syed Amin-ul-Hasan Jafri in the local body seat of the GHMC.