The TRS is likely to announce its candidates for Parliament elections any time after March 17 when the party’s working president K.T. Rama Rao concludes his State-wide tour of addressing meetings of party cadre to gear them up for polls.
On the other hand, party president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has commissioned surveys to facilitate selection of candidates in 16 out of 17 constituencies in the State which the party has targeted to win. The TRS has almost given up Hyderabad constituency to its friendly party, the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
As in the constitution of the Cabinet, Mr. Rama Rao is expected to play a key role in the selection which will mainly centre around constituencies where the party did not have sitting MPs. They included Nagarkurnool, Chevella, Secunderabad, Malkajgiri and Peddapalli. The last two constituencies were won by TRS in 2014 but the MPs there vacated the seats to get elected to the Assembly. Chevella was also won by TRS but the winner K. Vishweswar Reddy defected to the Congress before Assembly polls.
The TRS might also focus attention on Nalgonda and Khammam constituencies because the sitting MP in the former Gutha Sukhender Reddy was said to be not keen on contesting polls as he nursed an ambition to become Minister in the State. In the case of Khammam, the TRS leadership was unhappy that the party won only one seat in the Assembly elections and the local leaders indulged in group politics in the subsequent elections to gram panchayats. therefore, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao decided to appoint himself as the party in-charge for elections in the constituency.
In the case of the remaining nine constituencies, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao’s daughter K. Kavitha and TRS deputy leader in Lok Sabha B. Vinod Kumar might walk away with tickets effortlessly. That will leave the party to decide whether to retain the sitting MPs or look for new faces in Warangal, Mahbubabad, Adilabad, Mahabubnagar, Bhongir, Medak and Zaheerabad.
Sources said former deputy chief minister Kadiyam Srihari and a former MLA M. Kavitha were keen on contesting from Warangal and Mahbubabad constituencies respectively though the party had sitting MPs. There were no strong contenders in the remaining five constituencies but it will not be surprising if Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao decided to replace last time winners there, they added.
