Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday cautioned party legislators to cast their vote carefully during the polling on March 12 for the biennial elections the Legislative Council from the Assembly quota.
The TRS chief was overseeking practice polling in the Telangana Bhavan for the five MLC seats as it involves a process of marking preferences. He told the MLAs not to take the elections lightly since the Congress had boycotted it.
Explaining why he had offered the fifth Council seat to the MIM, Mr Rao said the party had requested the Congress not to field its candidate. When the Congress leaders provoked him stating that two to three TRS legislators were in touch with him and would vote for its candidate, he decided to fight for the fifth seat.
According to sources, Mr Rao said that despite knowing well that they would not get even 10 votes, and a majority of the Congress MLAs were in touch with the TRS, they decided to boycott the polling.
Mr Rao said he would announce the names of candidates in a couple of days.
Sources in the party said Mr Rao had warned MLAs and aspirants of MP tickets he would not tolerate any indiscipline after the announcement of candidates.
Indicating that not all sitting MPs would be renominated, Mr Rao said that when he had nominated a leader belonging to the Yadava community for the Rajya Sabha, many others had expressed dissent. Party leaders had again dissented when Mr Rao had nominated Mr Yegge Mallesham and Mr Seri Subhash Reddy to the Council. The party selects candidates after taking several factors into consideration, Mr Rao said.
Referring to the poll boycott call of the Congress, Mr Rao said the Opposition party had made it easy for the TRS. The Congress MLAs who had decided to join the TRS would abstain from voting.
He said the defector MLAs could have faced disqualification petitions if they had violated the party whip. There was no such danger as the Congress had boycotted the elections. Explaining the voting pattern to newly elected MLAs, Mr Rao introduced MIM nominee Mirza Riyaz ul Hasan Effendi to the MLAs.
Sources said Mr Rao had divided the TRS and MIM legislators into five group. Each group was allotted 20 MLAs and would be lead by two ministers each for smooth polling.
