There are two vacancies from Telangana for the biennial elections.
Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister and TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao is in two minds on sending his daughter and former Nizamabad MP K. Kavitha to Rajya Sabha in this month’s biennial elections. There are two vacancies from Telangana of which one is from TRS—K. Keshav Rao—and another is BJP’s—Garikapati Rammohan Rao.
Given the TRS’s strength in the Assembly, it will wrest both the seats.
KCR is under greater pressure from the party leaders who are openly calling for nominating Kavitha who lost from the Nizamabad Lok Sabha seat in 2019 May elections. Some of the party leaders, including Roads and Buildings Minister Vemula Prasshant Reddy, have been urging KCR to send her to Rajya Sabha in view of her contributions as a parliamentarian from 2014 to 2019.
Kavitha, who also heads Telangana Jagrithi, a cultural wing of TRS with global presence, is remembered in the ruling party for her speeches in Parliament and initiatives she had taken for achievement of many of the state’s demands. After her defeat to BJP’s Aravind Dharmapuri in the Lok Sabha elections, she has been maintaining a low profile in the party activities.
However, TRS’ impressive performance in the recent municipal elections has boosted the leadership’s morale to reclaim the moral ground as the ruling party won the Nizamabad municipal corporation’s mayor post with the help of its ally, AIMIM. BJP’s state unit as well as Aravind had fought hard to win the civic body, but couldn’t due to organisational weaknesses.
The victory in Nizamabad Municipal Corporation has removed the stigma of defeat for Kavitha and now her followers had begun claiming an active political role in the party. According to them, people of Nizamabad had been repenting defeating her as Aravind had failed to keep his promise of achieving a turmeric board to Nizamabad, a main poll plank for his victory.
“Whatever the Centre had given to Nizamabad in the form of a zonal office for spices board is nothing, but a follow up achievement of Kavitha in the last five years. Aravind, despite being a BJP MP, couldn’t achieve anything more,” said TRS Minister Prashant Reddy. He voiced confidence that she, if sent to Rajya Sabha, can get many more things for Nizamabad and Telangana, said the minister who hails from the district.
KCR is expected to finalise the two candidates barely a day before the close of nominations—March 13 as he had to weigh in various options.
As retiring member Keshav Rao is seeking another term, the Chief Minister would have to consider his request, but sources say that the senior leader is unlikely to get one more term this time. Keshav Rao will be sent to the Legislative Council as MLC soon, they say.
Another seat being vacated belongs to BJP’s Garikapati Rammohan Rao, who belongs to forward caste of Kamma. If KCR wants to send someone from the community, he may consider the candidature of former ministers Tummala Nageswara Rao or Mandava Venkateswara Rao. Otherwise, senior SC leader and former deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari or ST leader and former MP Sitaram Naik may get the chance.
Currently, TRS has six Rajya Sabha MPs and Keshav Rao is from the Andhra Pradesh quota, due to division of MPs at the time of bifurcation of the combined state. Of them, J. Santosh Kumar is a relative of KCR and belongs to forward caste of Velama, while Badugu Lingaiah Yadav and Banda Prakash Mudiraj belong to OBCs, while V. Lakshmikanth Rao is a Brahmin.
Another Rajya SabhaMP Dharmapuri Srinivas, father of BJP MP Aravind, is technically a TRS member, but has been kept away from the ruling party, thanks to his differences with Kavitha for the last three years. As there are no Reddys, a dominant community in Telangana, KCR might consider nominating one from the community, sources said.
In that case, the chances of former Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, or former Andhra Pradesh Assembly speaker K.R. Suresh Reddy or former Telangana Home Minister Naini Narasimha Reddy are bright. There is also possibility of KCR opting for some businessman from the Reddy community which may go to Hetero Drugs owner Parthasarathi Reddy, sources explained.
In case KCR decides not to send his daughter to Rajya Sabha, the chances of Telangana State Planning Board vice-chairman and former Karimnagar MP B. Vinod Kumar are brighter. Asked about it, Vinod declined to comment and said that he was ready to play any role assigned to him by the Chief Minister. However, as Vinod has been appointed to this post only six months back, he may not be disturbed at this stage.