10 remain in fray for Karimnagar MLC poll

TRS leaders taking all steps to ensure party’s victory

The TRS district leaders appear to be leaving nothing to chance in the Karimnagar Local Authorities Constituency (LAC), considered as the traditional stronghold of the ruling party, to win both the MLC seats in the ensuing biennial election to the State Legislative Council from the Karimnagar LAC, slated for December 10.

After losing the fiercely fought byelection to the Huzurabad Assembly constituency recently, the ruling TRS leadership is making a determined bid to ensure the victory of its candidates — former MP L. Ramana and the incumbent MLC T. Bhanu Prasad Rao at the next month’s hustings.

A total of 10 candidates, including the two candidates of the TRS and eight independent candidates, remained in the fray with as many as 14 candidates withdrawing their nominations on Friday, the last day for withdrawal of nominations.

As many as eight independent candidates, including former Karimnagar Mayor Sardar Ravinder Singh and two elected representatives of the rural local bodies, remained in the contest.

Sources said that the last-ditch efforts by the TRS senior leaders to persuade some distraught ruling party local leaders, who filed their nominations as independent candidates, to withdraw from the contest failed to yield the desired results.

Upset over being “denied” an opportunity to contest the MLC election by the TRS, former Karimnagar Mayor Ravinder Singh announced his resignation from the TRS on Thursday night.

Speculations are rife in the political circles that he may rejoin the BJP from which he switched over to the TRS at the height of the separate Telangana agitation more than one-and-a-half decade ago.

Despite having the requisite strength in the rural and urban local bodies, the TRS is trying to keep its flock together ahead of the MLC election in an apparent bid to prevent cross voting at the hustings.

Sources said that the key leaders of the ruling party are busy making arrangements to organise “camps” with the party’s MPTCs, the ZPTCs, the municipal corporators and councilors at resorts in far-off places like Bangalore until the penultimate day of MLC elections next month.