Telangana Governor not to fill MLC vacancies in view of court case

Hyderabad, Jan 17:  Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan has decided not to fill two vacant MLC seats under the Governor quota till the Telangana High Court disposes off writ petitions filed by BRS leaders Dasoju Sravan Kumar and K, Satyanarayana whose MLC nominations were rejected by her last year, it was announced on Wednesday.

The Raj Bhavan said in a statement that in the light of the writ petitions filed by Dasoju Sravan Kumar and Satyanarayana challenging the rejection of their MLC nominations, and the High Court's observation, no further steps will be taken in filling the vacant MLCs under the Governor Quota.

The Governor decided not to take any action on the proposal of the state government to fill the vacant two MLCs under Governor quota till the writ petitions are finally decided by the High Court, it said.

Sravan Kumar and Satyanarayana were nominated to the Legislative Council by the previous BRS government but the Governor had rejected the nominations. They later challenged the Governor’s action.

During the previous hearing, the petitioners expressed the apprehension that new Congress government would fill the seats.

To this, the bench of Justices Alok Aradhe and S. Nanda had observed that it was a gentleman’s agreement and the state will not do anything till the next date of hearing (January 24).

Meanwhile, the Congress on Wednesday named B. Mahesh Kumar Goud and Venkat Narsing Rao Balmoor as its candidates for by-elections to the Legislative Council under MLAs quota.

Congress General Secretary K. C. Venugopal announced the names. It was earlier reported that the party named state General Secretary Addanki Dayakar as one of the candidates. However, as per the official statement, state Working President Mahesh Kumar Goud will be the party candidate.

Balmoor is state NSUI president and had unsuccessfully contested the by-election for Huzurabad Assembly seat in 2021.

The election for two MLC seats under MLAs quota is scheduled on January 29. The last date for filing of nominations is January 18.

The seats fell vacant following the resignation of Kadiam Srihari and Padi Kaushik Reddy, after they were elected to Assembly in the recent elections. Both belonged to BRS and their terms as MLCs were due to expire on November 30, 2027.