Congress to Renominate Singhvi to RS
Sources said the AICC top brass and the state leadership, including the Chief Minister, were unanimous that Singhvi should be sent to the Upper House again.
Hyderabad: The Congress high command is learnt to have decided to renominate senior leader and Supreme Court senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi to the Rajya Sabha from Telangana for another term. For the second Rajya Sabha seat, which the Congress can win from the state, the party high command is considering the names of several leaders.
Front-runners include senior leader V. Hanumantha Rao, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy's adviser Vem Narender Reddy and former Khairatabad DCC president C. Rohin Reddy, former MP T. Subbarami Reddy and Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society vice-chairman Fahim Qureshi.
Sources said the AICC top brass and the state leadership, including the Chief Minister, were unanimous that Singhvi should be sent to the Upper House again. They felt his presence would help the party articulate its position on constitutional and legal matters.
For the second seat, the sources said the leadership was understood to be considering the names of Hanumantha Rao under the BC community quota and Narender Reddy under the OC quota. If the party opted for a younger candidate, Dr Rohin Reddy was under consideration and Qureshi could be considered under the minority quota.
Biennial elections to fill two Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana will be held on March 16, with the terms of K.R. Suresh Reddy of the BRS and Singhvi ending on April 9.
The Election Commission of India on February 18 announced the schedule for the elections.
The last date for filing nominations is March 5, scrutiny will be taken up on March 6, and the final date for withdrawal is March 9. Polling, if required, will be held on March 16 between 9 am and 4 pm, with counting scheduled for 5 pm the same day.
A candidate requires 41 votes to win a Rajya Sabha seat. The Congress has 66 MLAs in the Assembly, apart from the support of one CPI member. The BRS has 37 MLAs, the BJP 8 and the AIMIM 7. No party other than the Congress has the required strength to secure a seat on its own.
Singhvi was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Telangana on August 27, 2024, in a bypoll to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of former BRS member K. Keshava Rao, who quit the BRS and the Rajya Sabha in July 2024.