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Naidu favours Balakrishna for RS
Naidu favours Balakrishna for RS, Assembly polls, Rajya Sabha MP seats. The selection of candidates for the two Rajya Sabha MP seats has become a challenging task for TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu as many leaders are throwing their hat in the ring.
- TDP with 80 MLAs can send 2 members to RS
- Second term highly unlikely for Harikrishna
- Balakrishna being favoured to appease the first family
- He will thus be free to campaign during Assembly polls
- Motkupalli front-runner for the other ticket
Hyderabad: The selection of candidates for the two Rajya Sabha MP seats has become a challenging task for TDP President N Chandrababu Naidu as many leaders are throwing their hat in the ring.
The party which has 80 members in the Assembly can manage to send two candidates to Rajya Sabha. It may be recalled that over half a dozen MLAs have left the party and joined either TRS or YSRCP. Another MLA Suman Rathod has no voting right as the High Court has given a verdict, saying that she is not an SC candidate.
The TDP is trying to explore the possibility of enlisting support from Seemandhra MLAs belonging to Congress party who are trying to join it. While for the present, the party is trying to finalise the candidates for two seats, it will keep its options open for fielding a third seat if its numbers swell. According to party insiders, several leaders like Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy, Ch Ayanna Patrudu, Bojjala Gopalakrishna Reddy, Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary, Khambampati Rammohan Rao, P Anuradha and T D Janardhan Rao are in the race from Seemandhra region. But Naidu who also has to ensure that there is no revolt from the family ahead of the general elections will have to do a balancing act, the sources say.
Naidu’s brother-in-law N Harikrishna had recently resigned from Rajya Sabha protesting against the party’s decision to support T state and had even demanded that TDP withdraw the letter it gave in support of separate Telangana. In view of this, party leaders say that Naidu is seriously considering the name of another brother-in-law, N Balakrishna for Rajya Sabha seat. This Naidu feels would be advantageous for the party as it would be able to utilise the services of Balakrishna for campaign during the general elections. Balakrishna has good following among the people and is a crowd puller and hence appears to be the front runner. Naidu is however likely to face greater problem in selecting a candidate from the T region as there are many contenders which includes the SC leader Motkupalli Narsimhulu, convener of the TDP Telangana forum E Dayakar Rao, Greater Hyderabad party president T Srinivas Yadav, Revuri Prakash Reddy, Garikapati Mohan Rao, who missed the bus in the last time, Arvind Kumar Goud and Tummala Nageswara Rao. Sources say, Narsimhulu stands greater chance this time.
Tummala and Prakash Reddy, sources say, may not get a chance as it has been the practice of TDP to give at least one seat to BCs. The party has also been making all-out efforts to win the BCs back to its fold and had promised about 100 assembly seats. So the possibility of a dark horse from among the BCs emerging as the final choice is also not ruled out.
