HYDERABAD: The ruling Congress has decided to put off finalising the three nominations to the Telangana Legislative Council under the Governor’s quota until the second or third week of December, choosing instead to first settle appointments to government corporations, commissions and other nominated bodies.
With the government completing three years in office on December 7, the coming weeks are expected to see intense political activity within the party, with hundreds of leaders waiting for their turn in the appointments exercise.
The decision to defer the MLC nominations is understood to have been taken by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president B Mahesh Kumar Goud.
Party sources say the leadership wants to first bring some clarity to the pending nominated posts before finalising the three names for the Council.
But there is more to the delay than the sequence of appointments.
The Chief Minister is understood to be looking at the Governor-quota nominations in the context of the two Graduate MLC elections scheduled for March 2027, for which the Congress has already announced its candidates.
The Mahbubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad Graduate constituency presents a particular challenge for Revanth Reddy, as it includes his native district. The Congress is keen to improve its prospects in the constituency, and the proposed social composition of the three Governor-quota MLCs is being viewed as one way of strengthening the party’s position ahead of the elections.
The formula being discussed is to accommodate two Backward Class leaders and one Brahmin leader. The proposed combination is expected to serve two purposes: address representation within the party and send a political message about the Congress’s approach to social representation.
The party is understood to be considering one Padmashali and another leader from either the Munnuru Kapu or Mudhiraj community for the two BC positions. Aspirants from all three communities have stepped up their lobbying, approaching the Chief Minister, ministers and senior party functionaries to press their claims.
The proposed Brahmin representation also has a political dimension.
Nominated posts: Cong requires tact
Party leaders point out that the BRS had accommodated Brahmin leaders in the Legislative Council, while the BJP had earlier given an MLC opportunity to N Ramchander Rao, who is now being fielded by the party in an election. The Congress, too, is keen to secure a place for a Brahmin leader under the Governor’s quota.
The calculations are not confined to representation within the Council. Congress strategists believe that such appointments could help strengthen the party’s appeal among different social groups ahead of the Graduate MLC elections, particularly in the Mahbubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad constituency. Whether the appointments translate into electoral support remains to be seen, but the party is clearly looking beyond the immediate vacancies.
Meanwhile, the larger exercise of filling nominated posts has become a source of disquiet within the Congress. Several corporations, commissions and other nominated bodies are yet to have their full complement of chairpersons and members, despite the appointments having been pending for months.
With the government completing three years on December 7, party leaders across Telangana are stepping up pressure on the leadership to accommodate them in positions of their choice. For many, these appointments represent an opportunity to secure a political role after working for the party. For the leadership, they offer a means of recognising loyalists and keeping competing groups within the organisation engaged.
Party insiders believe that hundreds of leaders could secure positions in nominated bodies during the next phase of appointments, giving them roles for the remaining two years of the government’s present term. Some may also see these positions as a stepping stone towards contesting the next Assembly elections, particularly if delimitation results in changes to constituency boundaries.
This is where the two exercises — nominated appointments and MLC nominations — begin to converge. Revanth Reddy, Mahesh Kumar Goud and other senior leaders are understood to be working on a broader political arrangement that takes into account regional, community and factional considerations while keeping the next Assembly elections in view.
For the Congress leadership, the challenge is to accommodate competing claims without creating fresh discontent among those left out. With the next Assembly elections already forming part of the leadership’s calculations, the coming weeks will test Revanth Reddy’s ability to keep the party’s competing interests in balance. For now, the MLC nominations can wait. The larger exercise of keeping the Congress flock together cannot.
