CM meets party leaders, gives hint on MLC candidates

Vijayawada: Chief minister and ruling YSR Congress president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has reportedly gave enough hint to the party senior leaders on the MLC candidates to be filled from the party. The chief minister met the party leaders for a brief period on Friday where he made his mind known to them.
There are nine MLC seats from the local bodies quota falling vacant this year for which elections would be held on March 13.The chief minister has already named the candidates for the three graduate and two teacher MLCs.
The names for the nine local bodies MLC seats, seven assembly quota seats and two nominated posts yet to be decided. While elections are held only for the local bodies, graduates and teacher seats, notification is yet to come for the assembly quota and nominated seats.
The ruling YSR Congress is all set to win the 9 seats from the local bodies, seven seats from the assembly quota given its strength in the local bodies and the state Assembly. The two seats to be filled by the governor through nomination would also be from the ruling party. In all, the ruling YSR Congress would win 18 MLC seats without contest. However, the ruling party would have to face tough contest from the teachers unions in the two teachers MLCs and the political parties in the three graduates MLC seats.
Sources in YSRC say that the names of former TDP MLA Jayamangala Venkata Ramana from Kaikaluru from the undivided West Godavari district and Kudupudi Suryanarayana from the East Godavari district were cleared.
The names of Gunnam Nagababu and Vanka Ravindra are under consideration for the second seat in the West Godavari district. Similarly, for the Srikakulam local bodies seat, the names of N Rama Rao and Neelakantam Naidu are under consideration.
However, the source say the candidates for Kurnool, Anantapur, Chittoor and Nellore local bodies are not finalised yet. According to the sources, the chief minister is weighing the candidatures of BC candidates for Kurnool and Chittoor, a BC woman candidate for the Anantapur districts local bodies seats.
Meanwhile, no nominations were filed for the MLC seats till Friday. The notification for the nine local bodies seats, two teachers and three graduates seats were issued on February 16 and the last date is on February 23.