Hyderabad: Polls to five Legislative Council seats each under the legislators quota, scheduled for March 20, could turn out to be unnecessary, with the candidates likely to be elected unopposed in the Telugu states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.The Congress is poised to win three out of the five seats in Telangana thanks to the added strength of legislators who defected from the BRS. After a long hiatus, the Congress is all set to ink an open electoral pact with All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen leaving one seat to it. The BRS will comfortably win one seat.In Andhra Pradesh, the ruling National Democratic Alliance will sweep the five seats and would be sending Nagababu, Jana Sena chief and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan’s brother and film actor, the House of Elders. The other NDA partner, the BJP, will pitch for one seat, according to sources. The Telugu Desam will keep three.In Telangana, with 65 legislators of its own and help from the 10 defected BRS legislators, the Congress will comfortably get the required 72 votes to win three seats. “Majlis has one outgoing MLC Mirza Hassan and will anyway press for the seat. The central leadership may agree to leave the seat to the MIM,” said a senior Congress leader.The five retiring MLCs include former ministers Mahmood Ali and Satyavathi Rathod, Seri Subash Reddy and Y. Mallesham, who all belong to the BRS.Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy is under pressure from party aspirants for the three vacancies. Sources said veteran leaders Shabbir Ali, T. Jayaprakash ‘Jagga’ Reddy, Md Azharuddin and Sampath Kumar besides T. Jeevan Reddy, who claims to have foregone his Graduates seat, have been lobbying for the seats.On the BRS front, Dr Dasoju Sravan Kumar and Kurra Satyanarayana, whose recommendation by the previous government for nomination under the Governor quota was rejected by Dr Tamilasai Soundararajan, have been staking claim while Dr Krishank Manne, the man Friday of party working president K.T. Rama Rao, is said to have set his eyes on the lone seat.In Andhra Pradesh, the fate of former minister and ex-Speaker Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, who is among the retirees, will be decided. It was for the first time since the formation of TD in 1983 that the veteran leader is not in a position when his party is in power.Denied a Cabinet berth, Ramakrishnudu has been hoping for re-nomination as MLC. In an unprecedented manner, the NDA announced a few months ago that Pawan Kalyan’s brother would be inducted into the Cabinet as part of the trade-off for not pressing a claim for the Rajya Sabha seat. This would necessitate endorsement of Nagababu’s candidature as MLC.Prominent among the other aspirants are former Pithapuram MLA S.V.S.N. Varma who sacrificed his seat for Pawan Kalyan as part of electoral pact during the Assembly polls.
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