TRS announces Rajya Sabha candidates; KCR daughter Kavitha's wait for a role extends

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao has announced the party’s two nominees for the two Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant from Telangana.

TRS’s Parliamentary party chief K Keshava Rao and TRS leader Suresh Reddy would file their papers on Friday, the last date for nominations.

Keshava Rao is presently a member of Rajya Sabha elected from the TRS in 2014. But according to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act 2014, he was allotted to Andhra Pradesh. Keshava Rao was a Congress veteran who also served as the APCC president before joining the Chandrasekhar Rao’s team.

Suresh Reddy is also a former Congressman and had earlier served as the speaker of the united Andhra Pradesh assembly.

Several leaders in the TRS believed that Chandrasekhar Rao would send his daughter K Kavitha, who lost from Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency she was representing in last year's general elections, to Rajya Sabha.

The two TRS nominees are expected to be elected effortlessly since the ruling TRS has the support of around 100 MLAs, who vote in the elections to the upper house of Parliament.

In Andhra Pradesh, Rajya Sabha elections are required to be held on March 26 since the TDP has decided to field Varla Ramaiah as its candidate. YSRCP chief Jaganmohan Reddy had on Monday selected party leaders Mopidevi Venkatramana, Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose and industrialists Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy and Reliance group’s Parimal Nathwani as the four candidates for RS.

“The four YSRCP nominees were given the B-forms by Jagan on Wednesday as a fifth candidate entered the fray forcing an election. The TDP which does not have the required number of MLAs to win a seat has fielded its candidate pointlessly,” said a YSRCP leader.

TDP has 23 and YSRCP has 151 MLAs in the 175 membered AP assembly.

While Andhra Pradesh has 11 Rajya Sabha seats in total, Telangana has seven.

The tenure of the six sitting RS MPs from both states ends next month. Elections are being held for the 55 Rajya Sabha seats nationwide.