Hyderabad: As the date for issuing of notification for Rajya Sabha elections approaches, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is being pressured by his party leaders and close associates for a Rajya Sabha seat.
The election notification will be issued on March 6, the same day the Assembly Budget session will start.
According to TRS circles, Mr Rao is most under pressure from industrialists close to him such as Mr Divakonda Damodar Rao, chairman and managing director of Namaste Telangana, the Telugu daily newspaper, and Mr Jupally Rameswara Rao, founder chairman of My Home Group of Industries.
Elections, if necessary, will be held to two Rajya Sabha seats. The TRS is expected to win both of them unopposed, given its strength in the Assembly.
Sources close to the CM say he is working out caste combinations to finalise the names for the two seats. The caste equations being considered by him are: Reddy and Backward Caste (BC); Velama and BC; Reddy and Scheduled Caste (SC) and; Velama and SC.The TRS has five Rajya Sabha members — three from the Backward Caste (Mr Banda Prakash, Mr B. Lingaiah Yadav and Mr D. Srinivas), a Velama (Mr J. Santosh Kumar) and a Brahmin (Capt. K. Lakshmikantha Rao).
As there are already three RS members from the community, a BC candidate may not be chosen this time. Dr K. Kesava Rao, TRS Rajya Sabha member who is going to retire in April 2020, is also from the BC community. If the Chief Minister wants to give a Rajya Sabha ticket to the BCs, Dr Kesava Rao will be re-nominated.
Regarding the Velama community, Mr Santosh Kumar is from the community and is a relative of the CM. Damodar Rao, Rameswara Rao and Ms K. Kavitha, the other probable, are all Velamas.
From the Reddy community, former MP Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy is the front-runner. If his name is cleared whether the CM will consider another forward caste member for the second seat is a matter of speculation in the TRS.
There is no Scheduled Caste community member in the Rajya Sabha from the TRS, and Mr Rao may prefer one seat for the forward caste and one for a member of the SC community. TRS leaders say they won’t be surprised if one Rajya Sabha seat is given to a Reddy community member and the other from the Velama group. Representation to the SC community will be given in the Legislative Council, they said.
