Hyderabad: The election to fill five vacancies in the Telangana Legislative Council, which generated political heat after five 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, Haripriya and Yegge Mallesam, leaving one seat to its ally AIMIM.
Also read:Telangana Congress to boycott MLC election
The nominee of the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party is Mirza Riyaz ul Hasan Effendi.
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, increasing the strengthto 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, Haripriya and Chirumarthi Lingaiahhad recently announced their decision to join the TRS.
With this, the strength of Congress came down to 15. 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. BJP is represented by one MLA in the Assembly.
Meanwhile, Congress announced it would boycott the MLC election in protest against the defection of its MLAs being 'encouraged' by the ruling TRS.
