Addanki Dayakar and Balmoori Venkat are Congress nominees for MLC elections under MLA quota

Dayakar had contested from Thungaturthi in the 2014 and 2018 Assembly elections, but lost both the times.

Dayakar is a known supporter of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy. He stood by Revanth when the old guard in the Congress rebelled against him when the latter was state president.

Also Read: Telangana at Davos: Revanth Reddy kicks off ‘Invest in Telangana’ campaign at WEF; focuses on youth employment

Youngest MLC

Blamoori Venkat Narasing Rao, the state unit chief of NSUI — the Congress party’s student arm — is poised to became the youngest MLC as he is just 30 years old. He lost the recent election to the Assembly from Huzurabad to BRS candidate Padi Kaushik Reddy.

The nominations for election to the legislative council under MLA quota will close on 18 January. They will be declared elected unopposed after the deadline expires for the receipt of nominations, if there are no other contestants.

The Congress is poised to win both the seats in the Council after the Election Commission of India (ECI) decided to hold the elections separately for the two seats. As the Congress has a majority in the Assembly, it can easily win the two seats.

Had the ECI held a single election for both the seats, the BRS had a chance to win the second seat.

Also Read: K Kavitha skips fresh ED summons; ‘drama’ for political gain by BJP says Telangana Congress leader

BRS objections

The BRS, after the ECI said it would conduct election separately, went to the Telangana High Court but could not get a favourable decision.

Former minister and BRS working president KT Rama Rao, or KTR, had gone on record slamming the BJP for the ECI holding separate elections for the two berths in the Council.

The Congress, according to sources, had taken into considerations factors including the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. The party appeared keen on sending a signal to the people that it cared for the SCs as much as it wanted to encourage young blood.

The two seats in the Council fell vacant following the resignation of BRS MLCs Kadiam Srihari and Padi Kaushik Reddy on 9 December, after their election to the Assembly.

There were quite a few aspirants for the two berths, including state unit working president, Mahesh Kumar Goud, Patel Ramesh Reddy, and former MP Balaram Naik, but they could not make the cut.