Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) candidates for Rajya Sabha elections were finalised by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) on Wednesday. He congratulated the candidates and asked them to submit their nominations.
The TRS candidates are Bandi Parthasarathi Reddy, Vaddiraju Ravichandra and D Damodar Rao.
Bandi Parthasaradhi Reddy is the chairman and managing director of the Hetero Group. He is a billionaire and one of the richest Indians in Hurun India Rich List 2021. Vaddiraju Ravichandra (alias Gayatri Ravi) is a businessman-turned-politician. He is also the president of Telangana Granite Quarry Owners Association. The 61-year-old belongs to backward classes.
D Damodar Rao is the current chairman and managing director of Telangana Publications Private Limited chairman. The company runs Telugu daily ‘Namasthe Telangana’, English newspaper ‘Telangana Today’ and Telugu news channel ‘T-News’, considered as mouthpieces of the ruling party.
One of the three candidates named by the TRS will file nomination on Thursday for the by-election to be held on May 30. The vacancy arose due to the resignation of Banda Prakash after he was elected to Telangana Legislative Council. May 19 is the last date for filing of nomination.
Currently, there are seven Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana, all held by the TRS. With more than 100 MLAs in 119-member Assembly, the TRS has the required strength to win all the three seats. The election to fill the two vacancies in the upper house will take nominations until May 31, and election will be held on June 10.
The schedule for the election to these four RS seats was released by the Election Commission, and the notification is set to be released on May 21.
(With IANS inputs)
