Hyderabad: Buoyed by the success in MLC elections from Assem-bly quota, the ruling TRS is engaged in mobilising support to sweep all the 12 MLC seats from local bodies quota to which elections are likely to be announced this month.
Except Hyderabad, all the remaining nine districts of Telangana State will need to elect 12 MLCs from local bodies with the main Opposition, the Congress hoping to bag a minimum of three seats, one each from Rangareddy, Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda. However, TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao has instructed party leaders to grab all the 12 seats by hook or crook.
TRS leaders are now planning to exploit differences among the District Congress leaders in these elections. For example, in Nalgonda district, former Congress MP Komatireddy Rajagopala Reddy has already started his ‘election campaign’ since January this year and reportedly met ‘electorate’ twice already. He even offered ‘sops’ to enlist their support.
The TRS has almost finalised the name of Tera Chinnapa Reddy, a former TD leader who is now in the TRS as a ‘potential’ candidate to take on Mr Rajagopala Reddy. However, there are differences among PCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy, R. Damodar Reddy with Komatireddy brothers. Though the CLP leader K. Jana Reddy and Nalgonda MP Gutta Sukhender Reddy favour Mr Rajagopala Reddy as the candidate, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy is still not inclined to declare him the candidate.
In Rangareddy district, former home minister Ms Sabita Indra Reddy is set to enter the fray as a Congress nominee. The TRS has finalised Patnam Narendra Reddy, a close relative of Sabita Indra Reddy as its nominee for one seat and have not decided yet on the second candidate.
Similarly, in the case of two seats from Mahbubn-agar, former Congress minister D.K. Aruna is firm on fielding her nominees.
For the rest of the seats in Khammam, Warangal, Adilabad, Nizamabad, Medak (one seat each) and Karimnagar (2 seats), the TRS leadership is confident of sweeping them all.
Eventually, there is no particular seat that the Telugu Desam could win. The chances of winning MLC seat from Khammam is marred due to its strong leader Tummala Nageswara Rao joining the TRS taking a majority of the electorate.
The MLC polls from local body elections will witness heavy expenditure by the candidates who need to run camps with electors for weeks, including huge ‘offerings’ to them.
