AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh on Friday made enquiries with the State Congress leaders about party MLAs who are likely to sabotage the prospects of the three official nominees in the Rajya Sabha elections.
Mr. Singh, who made a brief transit halt at Rajiv Gandhi airport here on Friday afternoon on his way to Gulbarga, interacted with party candidates – K. V. P. Ramachandra Rao, T. Subbarami Reddy and M. A. Khan. Panchayat Raj Minister K.Jana Reddy, Housing Minister N. Uttam Kumar Reddy and PCC vice-president Md. Ali Shabbir also called on Mr. Singh and discussed the political scenario particularly the run up to Rajya Sabha elections.
Mr. Singh reportedly asked whether cross-voting by disgruntled MLAs would mar the chances of the official candidates. Mr. Shabbir said there was no such possibility as far as the 50 MLAs from Telangana, including an independent, were concerned.
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He reportedly said Mr. Khan and the TRS nominee Mr. K. Keshava Rao would sail through easily. So far as Seemandhra Congress MLAs were concerned, the candidates said they had no precise information on the number of legislators who would cross-vote.
Mr. Singh asked for names of the Seemandhra MLAs likely to defy the party line and asked the three Telangana leaders to take up the responsibility of seeing that there was no scope for horse trading. When some leaders complained that rebels had the backing of the Chief Minister, the AICC leader advised them to ignore such issues and work for the victory of the party candidates.