AP chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is learned to have started the exercise to pick up candidates for the impending Rajya Sabha elections from the State.
Four Rajya Sabha members from the state are scheduled for retirement on June 21, this year. They are Vijayasai Reddy, Suresh Prabhu, Y S Chowdary and T G Venkatesh.
While Vijayasai Reddy is from the YSR Congress, the other three members are from the BJP and all the three BJP seats will go to the YSR Congress as the BJP has no strength to elect RS members.
According to the sources, Jagan Mohan Reddy would send Vijayasai Reddy for one more term and he would fill his own vacancy.
With regard to the three other vacancies, Jagan Mohan Reddy is understood to have picked up the names.
Sources say that the chief minister had cleared the name of Bida Mastan Rao is doing rounds. A BC leader from Nellore district, Mastan Rao joined the party after the 2019 general elections.
Sources also say that the chief minister is also weighing the candidature of BC leader R Krishnaiah, who hails from Telangana.
Krishnaiah, a former MLA from TDP has been close to the YSR Congress and has good following in AP too.
The chief minister is also said to be considering the candidature of Marri Rajasekhar from Guntur district. He was promised to be made a minister in the state during the 2019 elections, but could not do so for various reasons.
Rajasekhar has good following among the Kamma community in Krishna and Guntur districts and his candidature is cleared to neutralise the community, which backs the TDP in the state.
The chief minister is also said to be considering the candidature of Chalamalasetty Sunil from Kakinada. Sunil too returned to the party after the 2019 general elections and is close to the chief minister. His candidature wold help in consolidating the Kapu base for the party in the two Godavari districts.
If Sunil is not considered for the post, sources say the chief minister would clear Sunil’s brother Gopi, who is currently looking after the family’s company Greenco.
