TDP renominates Ramesh for 1 RS seat

The Telugu Desam today re-nominated C M Ramesh, a businessman, for one seat and chose a surprise candidate Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar for another for the biennial election to Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh.

With this, TDP put an end to speculation that it might field a third candidate that could have forced an election on March 23.

Going by their numbers in the 176-member AP Legislative Assembly, the TDP could win two seats and the YSR Congress one seat in the biennial election.

The biennial election could now be a unanimous affair as the TDP will field only two candidates and the lone opposition YSR Congress one.
 

Filing of nominations for the RS election ends tomorrow.

"As per the decision of our party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, we are announcing the candidature of C M Ramesh and Ravindra Kumar for the Rajya Sabha election," TDP AP unit president K Kala Venkata Rao said in a one-line release.

Though state Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu was said to have aspired for a Rajya Sabha berth, having served the state for more than three decades in various capacities, he eventually had to give in to the party chiefs wishes.

"It is for the party and I have no aspirations as such," Yanamala, who is also a member of the TDP politburo, said.

Ramesh is now a member of the Upper House representing neighbouring Telangana since the bifurcation of the state.

A noted lawyer,Ravindra Kumar is head of TDP's legal cell and had appeared for Chandrababu in many cases filed during the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy regime.

"Kumar has been rewarded for his loyal work for the party for more than three decades now," a TDP politburo member said.

Though there was a lot of expectation that TDP might field a Dalit candidate for the RS this time, Chandrababu Naidu ultimately favoured two nominees from the upper castes.

The YSR Congress chose businessman Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy for the lone seat it could win and he has already filed his nomination.

In all three seats in the Council of states fall vacant on April 2 with the retirement of incumbents K Chiranjeevi, Renuka Chowdary and T Devender Goud.