YSR Congress party general secretary and party president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s programme coordinator Talasila Raghuram is going to be rewarded with MLC post.
Raghuram’s name was among the 11 names cleared by the chief minister for the election of MLCs under the local bodies’ quota. Raghuram will contest the elections from Krishna district local bodies’ constituency.
The other 10 candidates are: Indukuru Raghu Raju from Vizianagaram, Varudu Kalyani and Vamsi Krishna Yadav from Visakhapatnam, Ananta Udaya Bhaskar from East Godavari, Mondithoka Arun Kumar from Krishna, Ummareddy Venkateshwarlu and Murugudu Hanmantha Rao from Guntur, Tumati Madhava Rao from Prakasam, Bharat from Kuppam in Chittoor and Sivarami Reddy from Anantapuram.
Needless to say, all of them are likely to get elected unopposed due to massive strength the YSRC got in the mandal parishad and zilla parishads.
Raghuram was given the nomination under Kamma quota and is also a reward for his loyalty to the party in general and the chief minister in particular.
It was Raghuram, who took care of all the programme arrangements for Jagan during the latter’s marathon padayatra between November 2017 to January 2019.
Raghuram’s selection has dampened the spirits of another Kamma aspirant Marri Rajasekhar, former MLA from Chilakaluripet.
In the last elections, Rajasekhar sacrificed his seat for Vidadala Rajani and was promised the MLC nomination then.
However, in the last two and a half years, Rajasekhar’s name was heard every time when the MLC elections are held, but he could not get the nomination for various reason.
Even in the latest instance of the election of three MLCs under MLAs’ quota, his name came up for discussion.
But Jagan ignored Rajasekhar and gave the seats to P Vikrant of Srikakulam, Issac Basha of Kurnool and D C Govind Reddy of Kadapa.
He said the selection was done on the basis of party's policy to give 50 percent of seats to SCs, STs and BCs in all nominated or other posts. While Vikrant belongs to the BC category, Issac is from minorities.