Hyderabad, June 13: With the Congress high command keen on contesting the byelections for the 12 assembly seats in the Telangana region, the state unit of the party is in the process of identifying ‘candidates-with-cash’ in the hope that a liberal flow of money would drown the T sentiment and help the ruling party win a few seats.
The elections were necessitated due to the resignations of 10 MLAs of the TRS and one each of the TDP and BJP on the Telangana issue in February this year. While the TRS is expected to campaign solely on the separate state issue, the Congress and the TDP are likely to focus on other issues due to the contradictions within on the T imbroglio. After having lost out in his bids to enter the legislative council and getting a Rajya Sabha nomination, PCC president D Srinivas is all set to contest from Nizamabad Urban, from where he had lost to BJP’s E Lakshminarayana by over 11,000 votes in the 2009 elections. “It is clear. DS will be the party candidate from Nizamabad Urban,” a senior leader said.
Barring this seat, the Congress is keen to change the candidates from the 11 other assembly seats. According to sources, Prem Sagar Rao, a realtor and Congress MLC from Adilabad, is keen to contest from Sirpur assembly seat from where the TRS had won by a margin of 7,000 votes in 2009. “He has indicated that he would self-fund his entire campaign and can pump in a lot of funds for the elections,” party sources said. Apart from Prem Sagar, the party is also considering the candidature of former MP and businessman Indrakaran Reddy from Sirpur.
From Sircilla, the Congress is keen on fielding K K Mahender Reddy. A former TRS leader, Mahender had contested the last elections as an independent candidate after TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao put up his son K Taraka Rama Rao from Sircilla and lost to Rama Rao only by 171 votes. Since then, he has joined the Congress and Mahender is sure to be fielded from Sircilla by the ruling party, said sources.
Similarly, the party is likely to field a new nominee from Warangal West, from where the TRS candidate won by a margin of 6,684 votes in the last elections. In place of the losing candidate D K Dayasagar Rao, either P Vaisali, daughter-in-law of irrigation minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah, or Warangal mayor E Swarna would be nominated, the sources said.
Another constituency where the candidate is likely to be replaced is Chennur, an SC reserved constituency in Adilabad. In the 2009 elections, then labour minister G Vinod was trounced by TRS candidate N Odelu by over 11,500 votes. According to sources, Vinod may be accommodated in the neighbouring Dharmapuri constituency in Karimnagar district. “By fielding financially strong and winnable candidates, if we can manage to win at least 2-3 of the 12 seats, it will be a major moral victory for us against the TRS,” said a leader. The Congress had drawn a blank in these 12 seats, but managed to be the runner-up in all of them.
———Agencies