HYDERABAD: The Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) leadership is busy finalising candidates for three Legislative Council seats under MLAs quota for which the Election Commission issued the schedule on Monday.According to the schedule, the elections would be held on March 26 as incumbent MLCs Alimineti Krishna Reddy, Gangadhar Goud Vullolla and Naveen Kumar Kurmaiahgari would retire from the upper house on March 29.
It is a no-brainer that the three MLCs who would be retiring would want to be re-elected. Apart from them there are others who are hoping that BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao would favour them. They are already busy with back-channel lobbying.
Sources in the party said that either K Swami Goud, the former chairman of the Council, or former MLA Budida Bikshamiaha Goud might be handpicked for one slot. As the caste composition of the nominees would have a direct bearing on the Assembly elections later this year, KCR would be acting with extreme caution. Of the three MLCs retiring now, one belongs to the BC community while the remaining two are OCs.
Several Reddy and Kamma leaders are lobbying with the party leadership for nomination. Party leaders say that Dasoji Sravan who belongs to the BC community might be taken while the other seat might go to a Kamma leader Bandi Ramesh. But some seniors say that party Legislative secretary Ramesh Reddy is also in the race.
Party leaders said that Biskhamaiah Goud has a bright chance of landing the party ticket. He joined the BRS, leaving the BJP, ahead of the Munugode byelection even as former MP Boora Narasiah Goud left BRS and joined the BJP.
Sravan, originally from the BRS stock, left the party ahead of the 2014 elections and joined the Congress and later te BJP in 2022. He then did a prodigal son, returning home to BRS.