The election to fill five vacancies in the Telangana Legislative Council,which generated political heat after four opposition MLAs announced their decision to move to the ruling TRS, would be held on Tuesday.
TRS has fielded four of its own candidates (Home Minister Mohd Mehmood Ali, Seri Subhash Reddy, Satyavati Rathod and Yegge Mallesam), leaving one seat to its ally AIMIM.
The nominee of the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party is Mirza Riyaz ul Hasan Effendi.
The main opposition Congress has nominated one candidate, Gudur Narayana Reddy.
The TRS and its ally MIM appears set to win the five seats as four opposition MLAs recently announced their decision to join the TRS.
The strength of TRS in the 120-member House is 88.
An independent MLA and an AIFB legislator had ealier declared their support to TRS.
The strength of the TRS thus rose to 90.
The AIMIM has seven MLAs.
The main opposition Congress (with 19 MLAs) suffered a major setback as three of its MLAs (Rega Kantha Rao, Atram Sakku and Chirumarthi Lingaiah) had recently announced their decision to join the TRS.
With this, the strength of Congress came down to 16.
The two-member TDP has also suffered a setback as one of its MLAs had said he (Sandra Venkata Veeraiah) would be joining TRS.
The TDP's strength has got reduced to one.
The decision of the three Congress MLAs and the TDP legislator to join the TRS has dealt a blow to the chances of the Congress nominee in the Council election, who was banking on the support of TDP.
BJP is represented by one MLA in the Assembly.
TRS sources said a meeting of the party's legislature party would be held Monday morning at the party headquarters here.
The voting procedure in the MLC elections would be discussed in the meeting, they said.
A mock polling exercise would be held with the MLAs.
TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has urged all MLAs to attend the meeting without fail, the sources added.
The switch over of the Congress MLAs has led to a bitter war of words between Congress and ruling TRS.
The Congress had alleged that the TRS had 'purchased' the MLAs, while TRS working president K T Rama Rao referred to some public representatives joining the Congress and asked if that was also a 'purchase'.
Meanwhile, the Congress is staring at having no representation in the council as two of its MLCs are set to retire soon.
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