Three candidates including Renuka Chowdhury file nominations for RS

Hyderabad, Feb 15:  Former union minister Renuka Chowdhury, youth Congress leader Anil Kumar Yadav and Vaddiraju Ravichandra on Thursday filed nominations for three Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana.

While Chowdhury and Yadav filed their nominations as Congress candidates, Ravichandra has been fielded by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS).

The candidates filed their nominations before the returning officer at Telangana Assembly.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, AICC in-charge for Telangana Deepadas Munshi and ministers accompanied Renuka Chowdhury and Anil Yadav at the time of filing of nominations.

Earlier, Revanth Reddy, who is also Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president, handed over B-forms to the Congress candidates.

BRS working president K. T. Rama Rao and party MLAs and MLCs accompanied Ravichandra when he filed his nomination.

Elections to three Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana are scheduled on February 27 as the term of J. Santosh Kumar. B. Lingaiah Yadav and Ravichandra, all belonging to BRS, come to an end this year.

The Congress party, which has 64 members in 119-member Assembly, can easily win two seats.

The BRS has once again fielded Ravichandra. Out of three candidates, only Anil Yadav will be a first time member of Rajya Sabha.

Renuka was earlier nominated to the upper House in 1986 and 1992 by the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The Congress party had nominated her to the upper House of Parliament in 2012.

She had also served as union minister thrice in the governments of United Front and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

Anil Kumar Yadav is the son of Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) working president and former MP Anjan Kumar Yadav.

Ravichandra, the businessman-turned-politician, was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha in the by-election in May 2022. The by-election was caused by the resignation of Banda Prakash Mudiraj after he was elected to Telangana Legislative Council.

Ravichandra, popularly known as Gayatri Ravi, is the founder and chief promoter of Gayatri Group. He had joined the TRS (now BRS) in April 2019 after unsuccessfully contesting the Assembly election from Warangal East constituency on Congress ticket in 2018.