Congress declares candidates for two MLC seats in Telangana

Hyderabad, Jan 16: Telangana's ruling Congress has named its state General Secretary Addanki Dayakar and state NSUI President Venkat Balmoor as the candidates for election to two MLC seats under the MLAs quota.

Both the leaders were denied tickets in the recent Assembly elections and were assured nomination to the Legislative Council.

Dayakar, who is also senior spokesperson, is considered close to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, while Balmoor had unsuccessfully contested the bye-election for Huzurabad Assembly seat in 2021.

The party has ignored several key contenders for the MLC polls. Since no Muslim candidate of the Congress was elected in the recent elections, former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir, former India cricket captain Mohammed Azharuddin and another leader Feroze Khan were seen as the main contenders.

However, the party sources have not ruled out one of them being nominated to the upper house of the state legislature under Governor’s quota.

As already hinted by Revanth Reddy, Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) leader M. Kodandaram is likely to be nominated under Governor’s quota.

The election for two MLC seats under MLAs quota is scheduled on January 29.

The last date for filing of nominations is January 18.

The seats fell vacant following the resignation of Kadiam Srihari and Padi Kaushik Reddy, after they were elected to Assembly in the recent elections. Both belonged to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and their terms as MLCs were due to expire on November 30, 2027.

The Election Commission has decided to conduct the elections to two seats separately. Its move came under criticism from the BRS, which had also approached the High Court but did not get any relief.

Separate notifications for the two MLC seats appear to have given an upper hand to the Congress, which has 64 members in 119-member Assembly. The ruling party is likely to win both seats with a preferential voting system.