Congress switches to by-election mode

Hyderabad: Determined to win maximum seats out of the six Assembly constituencies in the Telangana region, the ruling Congress has already completed discussions with the leaders of Adilabad and Mahbubnagar districts and is planning to complete the process by seeking the opinion of local leaders from Warangal and Nizamabad districts by this weekend.

The six seats which have been notified as vacant are Mahbubnagar, Nagarkurnool and Kolhapur (Mahbubnagar district), Kamareddy in Nizamabad, Adilabad town and Station Ghanpur in Warangal district. Another seat, which was also declared vacant, is Kovur in Potti Sri Ramulu Nellore district.

The Election Commission is expected to issue a notification to hold by-elections to these seven Assembly segments any day. Besides, Assembly Speaker N Manohar is expected to take a decision on the disqualification petitions filed against 16 Congress MLAs and one erstwhile Praja Rajyam Party legislator soon.

According to Congress sources, the party is considering the names of former minister G Chinna Reddy and D Vishnuvardhan Reddy for Kolhapur, N Vijayalakshmi (wife of N Rajeshwar Reddy, whose death has necessitated the by- election) for Mahbubnagar and also Damodar Reddy and Dilipachary for the Nagarkurnool Assembly constituency.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is expected to nominate former minister J Krishna Rao, who resigned from the Congress to join TRS, from Kolhapur but no decision has been taken with regard to the remaining two seats.

The Telugu Desam Party has already announced that former minister P Chandrasekhar will be its nominee for Mahbubnagar and will finalise either Harshavardhan Reddy or Jagadeeswar Rao for Kolhapur seat.

The party is yet to decide on the name for Nagarkurnool seat, which was represented by former minister Dr N Janardhan Reddy and who quit TDP few months ago.

With regard to Adilabad Assembly segment, four leaders including district Congress president Ramachandra Reddy, District Credit Cooperative Bank Chairman Damodar Reddy and Mahila Congress leaders G Sujatha and Suhasini are in the race.

The Congress party's choice may fall on Ramachandra Reddy as he was former MLA and also served as minister in the past. The TRS will field Jogu Ramanna, who quit the Assembly to join TRS recently, while the TDP will be fielding P Shankar.

The battle lines for Kamareddy are already drawn with the TDP planning to field either P Rajeswar or M Venugopal while the TRS will be fielding Gampa Goverdhan, who also quit the TDP to join TRS recently.

As Kamareddy has sizeable population of minorities, the Congress may field former minister Mohd Ali Shabber, who has been elected for two terms in the past.

Station Ghanpur Assembly segment will have another interesting contest as the sitting MLA T Rajaiah, who quit the ruling Congress to join TRS, will face a formidable opponent and former minister Kadiam Srihari as the TDP nominee.