Hyderabad: Advisor to the chief minister, Vem Narender Reddy, is among the front runners from the Reddy community to get one of the five MLC seats under the MLA quota, the polling for which will be held on March 20.
Congress can win three seats and the fourth one strategically, while BRS can win a seat comfortably and strategically upset the grand old party’s plans for the fourth seat. Sources said that Vem Narender Reddy is most likely to get the MLC seat, although others in the race for the seat from the Reddy community are B Ayodhya Reddy (CM’s CPRO), Khairatabad district president C Rohin Reddy, Sama Rammohan Reddy, T Jeevan Reddy and T Jagga Reddy.
“Vem Narender Reddy is a confidante of CM Revanth Reddy. Both were in TDP. Narender Reddy joined Congress along with Revanth in Oct 2017. Presently, he is a minister of state cabinet rank as advisor to the CM (public affairs). He is most likely to be sent to the Upper House in the state,” a party leader said.
However, senior leaders in the party said no one can stop Narender Reddy from becoming an MLC if the CM is backing him. However, they said the ruling Congress has too much mathematics to do before finalising its MLC candidates, keeping in view the six vacancies to be filled up in the cabinet, appoint four working presidents and at least 15 vice-presidents in TPCC’s new team, and four MLC seats.
“All these decisions will be taken considering district representation, caste equations, and other factors. For example, Mahesh Kumar Goud is a BC and was given an MLC seat and TPCC president’s post. Now, if a BC has to be accommodated, a decision has to be taken whether it should be in the cabinet or the council. Already, there are two BC ministers, Ponnam Prabhakar (Goud) and Konda Surekha (Padmashali). Anil Kumar is a Rajya Sabha member and belongs to the Yadav community. There could be a place for Mudiraj. Sunitha Rao Mudiraj, who is Mahila Congress state president, and MLA V Srihari Mudiraj. Already Srihari is being considered for a cabinet berth,” a senior leader said.
It’s not just about BCs. It is the same case with SCs, STs, minorities and other castes. There is stiff competition with multiple aspirants for each of the cabinet berths, working presidents, and MLC seats. Then, there is too much pressure from several aspirants not to consider candidates who contested the assembly or Lok Sabha polls and lost
