HYDERABAD: A contest now appears inevitable for the Legislative Council from the MLAs quota with the Congress and Telugu Desam Party deciding to field more candidates than their respective strength in the Assembly.

The MLAs are to elect 31 Council members and going by the party positions in the House, the Congress would comfortably secure 19 seats after offering two seats to the CPI and one to the Majlis. The TDP could win four and the CPI (M) one with the former's support of one MLA.

The TRS is expected to win two seats with outside support and the nine rebel MLAs of the party might field one candidate with the support of one MLA from other parties.

Interesting scenario

What could have been an unanimous election for the candidates, has now turned into a knife-edge contest with the strategic move by the two major rivals to field an additional candidate each. Wednesday is the last day for filing nominations.

For both these parties, the situation demands greater skill in handling the second preferential votes now besides keeping intact the first ones. The fortunes of the winning candidate hinges on this deft handling.

While the TDP has already announced the name of its fifth candidate, Pogaku Yadagiri, the Congress has kept it under wraps. The name of the 20th candidate of Congress has to be cleared by the high command.

BJP undecided

Besides Mr. Yadagari, the four other TDP candidates are Ibrahim Bin Masqathi (Hyderabad), Sidda Raghava Rao (Prakasam), Bomidi Narayana Rao (West Godavari), and Masala Padmaja (Kurnool). Sources said it was in tune with the decision of the party to stick to the phil

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) announced its general secretaries, H.A. Rahman and M. Sudarshan Rao as candidates. The BJP with two members has not yet decided whom to support.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail