Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The Congress party has nominated the present Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and former MLA Vem Narender Reddy as its candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Telangana, ahead of polling scheduled later this month.The nominations were announced as part of the biennial elections to the Council of States, with voting set to take place on 16 March and counting scheduled for 5 pm the same day, according to the Election Commission.The two seats from Telangana will fall vacant on 9 April, when the terms of Congress Rajya Sabha member Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) MP K R Suresh Reddy come to an end.Singhvi is widely expected to retain his seat, given the Congress party’s numerical strength in the Telangana Legislative Assembly, which determines the outcome of Rajya Sabha elections through proportional representation.The Congress has also fielded Vem Narender Reddy, a former MLA and adviser to Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, who is considered a close associate of the chief minister.Reacting to his nomination, Narender Reddy expressed gratitude to the party leadership. In a post on X, he thanked Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, MP Priyanka Gandhi, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Congress in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan, Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka and Telangana PCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud, along with the party’s high command.The Telangana seats are part of 37 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states that are set to fall vacant in April as the terms of sitting members conclude. These seats belong to Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana.According to the Election Commission’s schedule, the notification for the elections was issued on 26 February, initiating the nomination process. The last date for filing nominations is 5 March, with scrutiny scheduled for 6 March and candidates permitted to withdraw their nominations until 9 March.
