HYDERABAD: Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao is leant to have finalised the party's candidates for MLC elections to fill six seats under MLAs' quota on Monday. However, the party is yet to declare the names of these six candidates officially so far.
There will be a total of seven candidates if the party chief changes Padi Kaushik Reddy, who has already been nominated as MLC under the Governor's quota, to MLAs quota and nominates another under Governor's quota.
The last date to file nominations ends on Tuesday and the party is expected to release the names officially either on Monday midnight or the early hours of Tuesday. According to party sources, the Chief Minister has finalised the names of former Legislative Council chairman Gutha Sukender Reddy, M.C. Koti Reddy, Padi Kaushik Reddy, T. Ravinder Rao, Kaidyam Srihari, Akula Lalitha and Errolla Srinivas. Of these seven candidates, one will be omitted at the last minute.
It is expected that former Legislative Assembly speaker S. Madhusudhana Chary will be nominated as MLC under Governor's quota in the place of Kaushik Reddy. It may be recalled that the state Cabinet chaired by Chandrashekar Rao approved the nomination of Kaushik Reddy as MLC under Governor's quota in August and referred to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan for approval.
But it has been pending in the Raj Bhavan since then reportedly due to the Governor raising objection over police cases pending against Kaushik Reddy and also he does not fit under 'social service category'.
