Hyderabad, February 28: Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy returned to Hyderabad from Delhi on Sunday evening after the final round of talks with Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel regarding the party nominees for the ensuing elections to the Legislative Council.
Sources say that Kiran Kumar Reddy stayed put in the capital to get formal approval for the list of the candidates for local area seats in the council.
The chief minister met Sonia Gandhi on Saturday and had a brief discussion on the elections and the seats being vacated by those representing local bodies in the council.
Ten members elected to the council from local bodies will be retiring by May 1. They are: Patil Venugopal Reddy (Anantapur), YS Vivekananda Reddy (Kadapa), B Raghavendra Reddy (Nellore), Ch Ganga Bhavani and Mallula Lakshmianrayana (West Godavari), Gidugu Rudra Raju (East Godavari), Gorle Haribabu Naidu (Srikakulam), R Reddappa Reddy (Chittoor), Tirumala Srinivasulu (Kurnool) and Syed Aminul Hasan Jafri (Hyderabad).
The election commission is holding elections to these seats for which the last date for filing nominations will be March 4 and date of counting of votes will be March 23.
The party is, at present, busy finalising the names for the local body seats, to be elected by MLAs. The last date for filing nominations for the seats to be elected by MLAs is March 7.
Those vacating the seats are: KB Narayanappa, R Gopinath, B Chengal Rayudu, Paladu Venkata Rao, Puvvada Nageswara Rao, Bommidi Narayana Rao, Masala Padmaja, Mohammad Jani, Syed Altaf Hyder Razvi and Kasani Gnaneswar.
It is likely that the names of those contesting for local body seats will be known by today. Before meeting Sonia Gandhi, the chief minister had a preliminary round of talks with Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily.
It is likely that of the 10 local body seats, one would be left for MIM. Those who might be given a chance to recontest include Patil Venugopala Reddy and Reddappa Reddy. As far as Kadapa seat is concerned, former MLA N Varadarajul Reddy might be nominated since YS Vivekananda Reddy, who will be retiring, is keen on contesting from Pulivendula seat. The Kadapa election might become dicey since YS Jagan Mohan Reddy who has considerable following among the voters, might wrest the seat. His candidate is C Narayana Reddy, brother of MLA C Adinarayana Reddy.
–Agencies