With the Election Commission of India announcing a fresh schedule for the conduct of elections to 12 MLC seats under local bodies’ quota in Telangana, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi has begun the exercise for the selection of candidates.
Almost all the 12 seats would be bagged by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi which has huge majority in the local bodies across the state, though there might be tough contest in some places like Warangal and Nalgonda, where the Congress has good number of MPTCs and ZPTCs.
It is nothing but natural that many of the outgoing MLCs seek renomination to the legislative council, but one wonders how many of them are in the good books of TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to become eligible for renomination.
Sources said among those who would be completing their term, Pochampalli Srinivas Reddy, Tera Chinnappa Reddy, V Bhoopal Reddy, Naradasu Lakshman Rao and Patnam Mahender Reddy stand fair chance of getting the chance of becoming MLCs for a second term.
But the most keenly watched candidate for renomination to the legislative council is KCR’s daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha.
She was elected to the legislative council only February this year, following the disqualification of sitting MLC Bhupathi Reddy, who defected to the Congress.
Sources said Kavitha was, in fact, not interested in the MLC seat, but she had no other option to be in active politics after her defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Nizamabad.
Unfortunately, even after becoming an MLC, she had hardly anything do due to second wave of Covid-19 and subsequent political developments.
Kavitha was given the impression that she would be inducted into the cabinet but that did not happen.
She attended only session of the legislative council, where she tried to make a mark, but that was what she could do. She remained inactive in politics.
She spent a few weeks in the US and later concentrated on her Telangana Jagruthi activities.
She did not even attend the party’s plenary held in Hyderabad last month and has been maintaining a low profile.
Sources said KCR might offer a second to Kavitha to contest the MLC elections under local bodies’ quota from Nizamabad. But one is not sure whether she is ready to accept the offer.
“She has higher ambitions and doesn’t want to remain a mere MLC. If she is given a cabinet post, then she may accept,” a TRS leader said.
She may not say no, if KCR insists that she should contest but that would not help her in any manner to go up the ladder in politics.