Published Jan 23, 2024 | 7:00 AM ⚊ Updated Jan 23, 2024 | 7:00 AM
From left: Balmoori Venkat and Mahesh Kumar Goud. (Supplied)
B Mahesh Kumar Goud and Venkat Balmoori — the two Congress candidates for the MLC bypoll on the MLA quota — have been elected uncontested to the Telangana Legislative Council.
They received certificates of election from the officials in this regard, Congress sources said on Monday, 22 January.
Monday was the last date for the withdrawal of candidatures to the MLC polls.
The by-election was necessitated by the resignation of two BRS MLCs following their election as MLAs in last year’s polls.
The AICC on 17 January chose Telangana Congress working president B Mahesh Kumar Goud and National Students Union of India (NSUI) state president Balmoori Venkat Narasing Rao for the by-election.
Mahesh Kumar’s nomination had come as a rude jolt to TPCC general secretary Addanki Dayakar, who had been told a day earlier by the Congress’ Telangana in-charge Deepa Dasmunshi that he would be one of the candidates.
The party high command reportedly consulted Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy before making the official announcement.
Dayakar, a known supporter of Revanth Reddy, stood by him even as the old guard in the Congress rebelled against him when the latter was the party’s state president.
However, sources said earlier that Dayakar would not be exactly left out in the cold. The party might consider him for a suitable government sinecure.
The two Congress candidates were declared elected unopposed as there was no contestant against either of them from any other party.
The Congress had already been poised to win both seats in the Council after the Election Commission of India (ECI) decided to hold the elections separately for the two seats.
After all, the Congress has a majority in the Telangana Assembly.
Had the ECI held a single election for both seats, the BRS — the second-largest party in the Assembly — would have had a chance to win the second seat.
(With PTI inputs)
