Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao nominated four candidates for the MLC polls and offered the fifth one to ally MIM, seeking to oust the Congress from the Council. The TRS needs eight MLAs to pull it off.
Going by their current strengths, the TRS could win four of the MLC seats in the March 12 election, and the Congress the fifth one with the support of the TD. Asking the MIM to contest from the fifth seat will force a contest.
If the Congress loses, it will be wiped out from the Council. There has been no TD member in the Council since 2015.
Mr Rao nominated home minister Mohd Mahmood Ali; Mr E. Mallesham and Mr S. Subhash Reddy, who were active in the statehood agitation; and former MLA Satyavathi Rathore, who was denied a ticket in the 2018 polls.
The MIM is yet to nominate its candidate.
The EC had notified the schedule for elections to five MLC seats under the Assembly quota following the retirement of Mr Mahmood Ali, Wakf Board chairman Md Saleem, Mr T. Santosh Kumar of the TRS, Mr Mohammed Ali Shabbir and Mr Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy of the Congress.
