The president and chief minister of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) K.Chandrasekhar Rao has revealed the party’s candidates for three vacant Rajaya Sabha seats in Telangana for polls in May and June. He said Bandi Parthasaradhi Reddy, who is the chairman and managing director of Hetero Group, Vaddiraju Ravichandra, granite businessman-turned-politician, and Damodar Rao, who is the chairman and managing director of Telangana Publications Pvt Ltd, will be the TRS candidates to occupy 3 vacant Rajya Sabha seats.
As the chief minister picked businessmen and industrialists for all the 3 Rajya Sabha seats unlike earlier when Rajya Sabha was given to full-time politicians and leaders from BC, SC, and ST categories, the TRS leaders as well as the political circles have shocked, and this is the first time ever, the chief minister has done. While 2 seats were endorsed for OCs (FOR Reddy and Velama respectively), one seat was allotted to BC candidate Vaddiraju Ravichandra, who belongs to the Munnuru Kapu community.
As per the official sources, Vaddiraju Ravichandra had been elected for the bypoll for leftover 2-year tenure till April 2, 2024, while the other two candidates were chosen for full 6-year tenure till June 2028. But, this is yet to be confirmed officially by the party chief. The election for two seats having full 6-year tenure will be held on June 10, while bypoll is being held for one seat on May 30 which has a leftover tenure of just a couple of years. The MP Banda Prakash’s tenure will end on April 2, 2024.
Vaddiraju Ravichandra is a granite businessman-turned-politician who contested the Assembly polls unsuccessfully in 2018 from Warangal urban as the Congress candidate, he joined forces with Telangana Rashtra Samithi just before the Lok Sabha polls in April 2019 and has been working for the party since then.