HYDERABAD: Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has deferred the decision on filling two vacant MLC seats under Governor’s quota till a related case in Telangana High Court is cleared. The ruling Congress is currently in the process of short-listing the candidates for these MLC seats.
A communique from Raj Bhavan on Wednesday said: “In light of the pending writ petitions (WP No 180 of 2024 and WP No 181 of 2024) filed by Dasoju Sravan Kumar and K Satyanarayana, challenging the rejection of their MLC nominations, and the High Court of Telangana’s observation that in accordance with the gentlemen’s agreement, no further steps will be taken in filling the vacant MLCs under Governor’s quota... the Governor has decided not to take any action on the proposal of the state government to fill the vacant two MLCs under Governor quota till the above writ petitions are finally decided by the high court.”
It may be recalled here that in August 2023 the then BRS government recommended the names of Sravan and Satyanarayana for the state Legislative Council under Governor’s quota. However, in September, the Governor rejected their nominations as the BRS government failed to provide any information on social service done by these two candidates.
The Governor suggested that the Cabinet and the then chief minister avoid “politically aligned people” when filling up nominated posts under Article 171(5) of the Constitution of India.