HYDERABAD: Striking a balance between seniors and youngsters, the Congress on Wednesday nominated TPCC working president (organisation) Mahesh Kumar Goud and NSUI state president Balmoor Venkat as its candidates for elections to the two vacant Legislative Council seats under the MLA quota.
With this, the party gave priority to committed leaders who strove hard and brought it to power in the state. Both Mahesh Kumar and Venkat have served in the party’s student outfit, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).
Hours before the deadline to file nominations ended, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge approved the candidature of Mahesh Kumar and Venkat. If required, the MLAs will cast their vote on January 29.
Earlier in the day, anxiety was palpable in the corridors of the Gandhi Bhavan, the Congress state headquarters, with rumours circulating about the withdrawal of Mahesh Kumar’s candidature. However, by the end of the day, the dynamics changed.
While it was initially reported that the party dropped Mahesh Kumar’s candidature on Tuesday night, senior leaders, including ministers, intervened and spoke to AICC Telangana in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi.
The seniors are believed to have conveyed to Munshi that dropping a BC’s candidature ahead of the Lok Sabha elections was not advisable.
Munshi communicated this to the party high command and the AICC leadership finally decided to proceed with the nominations of Mahesh Kumar and Venkat.
Earlier, Mahesh Kumar and Addanki Dayakar were believed to be under consideration for the MLC posts. All three made the sacrifice of withdrawing from the race for tickets in the recent Assembly elections.
Musical chairs
With three leaders in the race and two vacant Council seats, it was like a game of musical chairs. Initially, it was reported that the party would give the nod to Mahesh Kumar and Dayakar. This soon changed, and it was Dayakar and Venkat. Finally, Mahesh Kumar and Venkat made it to the list. The party was expected to announce the names of Dayakar and Venkat on Tuesday itself. However, senior leaders intervened and insisted that Mahesh Kumar could not be ignored.
When the Congress was in the Opposition, Venkat had launched many agitations and filed many PILs on behalf of students and unemployed youth. He was jailed numerous times by the BRS regime. In 2022, Rahul Gandhi visited Venkat when he was jailed for staging a protest at Osmania University.
Being the party’s organisation in-charge, Mahesh Kumar played a key role in coordinating with the party’s ground-level leadership. He effectively communicated the party’s messages to the rank and file and organised all the party’s programmes diligently.
Given that the Congress enjoys a majority in the Legislative Assembly, the party is likely to win both the MLC seats, as the Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to conduct elections separately for the two seats.
Meanwhile, Dayakar told TNIE that the party may consider him for a better position than an MLC post.
He said that the state and central leadership have his best interests in mind and the same was conveyed to him by AICC general secretary Deepa Dasmunshi. Accommodating a person like me, who sacrificed an MLA ticket, is a “simple task” for the party, he added.