Hyderabad: Senior Congress leaders, who missed the assembly tickets or have no chance of getting Lok Sabha tickets, are vying for Rajya Sabha nominations.
Congress will get two Rajya Sabha seats based on their strength but the aspirants are many.
Senior Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao, who has applied for a Khammam Lok Sabha ticket, is alternatively yearning for another Rajya Sabha term. VHR had served as Rajya Sabha MP for four terms.
Seventy-five-year-old Hanumantha Rao met Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy in the assembly the other day to seek a ticket.
“The choice is left to the Congress High Command,” he quipped when asked if he too was yearning for a Rajya Sabha ticket.
Among those in the race include Renuka Chowdhary, Balram Naik, K Jana Reddy, G Chinna Reddy, K Jana Reddy, J Geetha Reddy, G Niranjana, former MP T Subbarami Reddy to name a few.
Niranjan had also met the Chief Minister and staked a claim for RS ticket or MLC.
To avoid any misgivings, the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) headed by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had passed a unanimous resolution authorising AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge to finalise the candidates.
In the last assembly elections, G Chinna Reddy had sacrificed his ticket to Megha Reddy in Wanaparthy on being assured of suitable compensation.
There is also a talk in Congress circles that the Congress High Command is also considering nominating AICC publicity chairman Pawan Khera, AICC national spokespersons Supriya Shrinate, Jairam Ramesh, AICC NSUI in charge Kanhaiya Kumar, AICC Telangana in-charge Deepa Das Munshi, etc.
Vacancies in Rajya Sabha arise following the completion of terms of BRS MPs J Santosh Kumar, Badugula Lingaiah Yadav, and Vaddiraju Ravichandran who were elected in 2018.
Telangana Assembly has 119 MLAs and elections will be held for three seats.
Going by the current strength of Congress with 64 MLAs in the Assembly, the party can win two seats since 31 votes are required to elect an RS MP. BRS with 39 MLAs can win one seat. The elections will be unanimous if Congress fields two candidates and BRS one. There will be a contest if Congress fields three candidates. If there is a contest, there could be cross-voting.
In the assembly, BJP has 8 MLAs, AIMIM 7, and CPI one. At least 10 MLAs are required to propose the candidature of each Rajya Sabha contestant. CPI, a friendly ally of Congress will support Congress, and AIMIM, an ally of BRS has announced that it will provide issue-based support to Congress. These parties’ stand will be out once elections are declared.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had recently visited New Delhi and discussed RS candidates with the Congress High Command. But so far, he has not given an inkling of likely candidates.
Of course, he did mention a couple of names including G Chinna Reddy as deserving candidates for top nominated posts since they sacrificed their assembly seats.
Sources in Congress say the final nomination will be out any time.
