Chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Wednesday sprang a surprise at a Congress election-related meeting by proposing the name of Speaker K R Suresh Reddy as the party candidate from the Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency.
According to sources, Rajasekhara Reddy’s plan is to kill many birds with one stone by nominating the assembly speaker to the Lok Sabha. “The CM wants to upstage union minister S Jaipal Reddy by promoting another Reddy who is equally articulate in English, young and wellversed in parliamentary etiquette by virtue of being a speaker. This move would also block PCC president D Srinivas’ bid to enter the Lok Sabha as well as that of vocal Telangana campaigner and sitting Nizamabad MP Madhu Yaskhi Goud,” a Congress leader said.
With the PCC president vocally opposing the proposal of the chief minister at the Wednesday’s meeting, much sparks are expected to fly when the state Congress election committee chaired by AICC general secretary M Veerappa Moily meets here on Thursday to finalise the list of candidates for the Lok Sabha and assembly polls which would be sent to the AICC central election committee that is scheduled to meet in New Delhi on March 8.
As Nizamabad with a sizeable Muslim population is considered a sure seat for the ruling Congress, PCC chief Srinivas had hinted on several occasions that he would like to contest from there. Srinivas wanted to move to the Lok Sabha in order to facilitate his son Dharmapuri Sanjay, current mayor of Nizamabad municipal corporation, to contest from the Nizamabad assembly seat that is currently held by the PCC chief. At one point of time, Srinivas also promoted the name of cricketer Azharuddin for the seat.
DS has been making moves to contest from Nizamabad even though the sitting MP Madhu Goud is seeking a re-nomination from there. “It was the PCC chief who had facilitated the Nizamabad ticket for Madhu in the 2004 elections. However, since the sitting MP has fallen out with the chief minister due to his pro-Telangana and anti-CM utterances, the PCC chief thought the seat was up for grabs and that he could seize it. Besides, Madhu, who claims proximity to 10 Janpath, can manage a seat from anywhere,” one DS loyalist said.
The DS loyalists were taken aback by the proposal of YSR to field Suresh Reddy from Nizamabad especially when the speaker’s own seat Balakonda from the district has remained unchanged after the delimitation exercise. But CM loyalists contend that Suresh Reddy, with all his qualifications, will make a fine union minister in place of Jaipal Reddy.
Party sources said if no unanimity is achieved in Thursday’s election committee meeting, the names of all the three aspirants, namely, Suresh Reddy, Srinivas and Madhu Yaskhi would be sent to the party high command to finalise the candidate.
No comments:
Post a Comment