With ruling party dominance, nominees are expected to win unopposed; the nomination process is overseen by Chandrababu Naidu.
Vijayawada: The Telugu Desam-led alliance government fielded five nominees to contest the biennial elections to the AP Legislative Council from the MLAs constituency. Their election would be unanimous, it is expected, in view of the strength of the three ruling parties in the assembly.
On the last day of filing of nominations on Monday, four nominees, including three from TDP and one from BJP filed their papers before the assembly deputy secretary and returning officer Vanitha Rani.
With the deadline for nominations over, five nominees are in the fray- Konidela Nagendra Rao from Jana Sena, Ravichandra Beeda, B Tirumala Naidu, Kavali Greeshma Prasad from Telugu Desam and Somu Veerraju from BJP.
The three TD nominees filed two sets of nomination papers, while the BJP nominee filed one set.
The nominations were filed by the three in the presence of ministers Lokesh, Atchannaidu, Kandula Durgesh and Satyakumar Yadav and MLAs Vishnu Kumar Raju, Palla Srinviasa Rao, K Lalitha Kumari and Vemireddy Prashanti Reddy.
As per the schedule, the scrutiny would be on March 11, the last date for withdrawal on March 13 and elections on March 20.
The chief minister announced the names of its nominees on Sunday, while the BJP national leadership announced the party’s nominee, Somu Veerraj,u on Monday. High drama unfolded as Veerraju had to rush to Vijayawada from Rajahmundry with all requisite papers to file his nomination papers. He got his B-Form delivered at the nick of time.
Chandrababu Naidu monitored the entire procedure as to which MLAs should propose the names of each nominee. A bunch of 10 MLAs has to propose each nominee.
Jana Sena nominee Konidela Nagendra Rao filed his papers on March 7. He revealed assets of 57 crore and liabilities of 1.64 crore.
Beeda Ravichandra, hailing from Isukapalli village of Alluri mandal in Nellore district had held several positions in the TDP and served as an MLC from 2015-2021. Currently, he is working as the TDP national general secretary.
B Tirumala Naidu joined TDP in 1994 and is currently serving as an MLC and as the party’s deputy leader in the council. He has been renominated by the TDP to contest the MLC polls. He contested unsuccessfully for the Lok Sabha from Kurnool in 2009 and 2014.
Kavali Greeshma hails from Srikakulam and held various positions in the party. At present, she is serving as the chairperson of AP Manila Sahakara Ardhika Samstha and as an official representative of the party’s state unit. She was with the state CMO looking after communications in 2019.
Her mother, Pratibha Bharathi, served as a minister in the TDP government and as an assembly speaker in the undivided AP. Her grandfather, Justice Kothapalli Punnaiah, served as a judge in the high court and as an MLA earlier.
