The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti’s attempt to ensure that there is no Congress in the uppper house of the state legislature appears to be bearing fruit.
With the defection of two Congress MLAs to TRS, the party has lost hope to win one MLC seat from Assembly constituency which looked possible earlier.
With the support of two TDP MLAs, the Congress,which had a strength of 19 MLAs in Assembly, was sure to send one member to the state legislative council.
However, the hope of Congress dashed when two of its MLAs, Rega Kantha Rao and Atram Sakku, and one TDP MLA, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, announced that they are leaving their respective parties for the betterment of their constituencies.
Now Congress strength in Assembly has fallen to 17 and TDP one.
Having successfully implemented its gameplan in Assembly, the TRS is now said to be focussing its energies on graduates’ constituency comprising four districts Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Medak, where Congress is fielding senior leader T Jeevan Reddy as it’s candidate.
If Jeevan Reddy loses the election, for the first time in history of legislative council, Congress would be failing to have representation in the upper house.
The only hope of the Jeevan Reddy in the graduate constituency is that the TRS, despite its strong presence, has decided against contesting the election.
If the TRS decides to back the candidature of Independent aspirant Chandrasekhar Goud, it would be difficult for Reddy to make it to the upper house. With the absence of TRS candidate in the fray, party sources say, Reddy is confident of winning the election.
As the TRS is firm on seeing a Council minus Congress representation, the talk among the TRS circles is that the ruling party is bound to back Chandrasekhar Goud,thus making the election tough for Jeevan Reddy.
A clear picture is expected to emerge in a day or two.
The election to the graduate and teachers constituencies are scheduled on March 22,2019.