Who would grab those two MLC seats?
HYDERABAD: As the last date, March 11, for filing of nominations for the 10 MLC seats under the MLA quota draws closer, a rat race is on for two seats.
Of the 10 seats, the Congress party is sure to retain its present strength of five and the TDP will comfortably win two seats.
The YSR Congress, which has 17 MLAs, has got chances to win one seat as nine Congress and four TDP dissidents are likely to support its candidate.
Speculation is rife over which party will grab the remaining two seats. As each MLC candidate requires 28 MLA votes to get elected, as per the present strength of the House, the Congress will win five seats as it can get 140 votes without any difficulty.
Though the Congress has 156 (155+1) legislators on the paper, of them nine have shifted their political allegiance to Jagan. Hence, the ruling party has now an effective strength of only 147.
As the surplus seven MLAs are not sufficient to win the sixth seat, the camp managers of the ruling party are still mulling over contesting for another seat.
In the case of TDP, though the party has 85 MLAs, four of them defected to YSRC, whereas two have been moving closely with the TRS. It means the TDP has now an effective strength of 79 MLAs. It can win two seats, but requires another five legislators to bag the third seat.
Because of the shortage of votes for the third seat, the TDP is planning to seek the support of the CPI, which has four MLAs, along with the CPM, which has one MLA. The TRS, which has 18 (17+1) MLAs, is also looking for the support of the CPI, and the MIM (7) to grab one seat.
The pink party leadership thinks that by garnering the support of CPI (4), BJP (3), two suspended TDP MLAs (S Venugopalachari and K Harishwar Reddy) and independent member Nagam Janardhan Reddy, it can win one seat.
In order to get the support of the MIM, the TRS leadership has fielded a Muslim candidate, Md Mahmood Ali, for the seat. Ali filed his nomination on Thursday. However, the MIM is reportedly preferring the YSRC over the pink party.
Meanwhile, the CPI too wants to field its candidate for one seat by taking the support of the TDP.
When contacted, CPI state secretary K Narayana confirmed that they were planning to contest for one seat by taking the help of like-minded parties.
'However, we will decide it during our party state executive meeting, slated for Friday and Saturday,' Narayana said.
He also made it clear that his party had not taken any decision on supporting any party in the MLC polls.
While the TRS is hoping that the BJP will support its candidate, the saffron party is reportedly not ready to back the TRS as it has fielded a Muslim candidate.
It would be interesting to watch who will grab the two MLC seats.
News Posted: 8 March, 2013
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