Congress party’s central leadership has yet again preferred social engineering and service to the party as the criteria for selecting candidates for the MLC polls.

AICC general secretary K. C. Venugopal on Sunday announced the names of PCC general secretary Addanki Dayakar, actor Vijayashanti and tribal leader and Nalgonda DCC chief Kethavath Shanker Naik as the party nominees. It has decided to allot one seat to its alliance partner CPI. There are five vacancies to be filled up, the elections for which will be held on March 20. Monday is the last day for filing nominations.

The Congress high command was keen on protecting social justice plank the party has been espousing since it took the decision to not only conduct the socio-economic survey successfully and the State Cabinet approved the draft bill on SC sub-categorisation. Both these issues are seen as added advantage for the Congress in the run-up to the local bodies elections to be conducted soon.

Grassroots worker

Party sources said Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy pushed for the candidature of Addanki Dayakar, who had missed the ticket last year.

Kethavath Shanker Naik, a grassroots worker, who rose to become the Nalgonda DCC president, has been with the party for the last 35 years. He had the solid backing of Congress veteran and former Minister K. Jana Reddy. Ms Vijayashanti has been brought in under BC quota with the hope of showing a popular face for the party to woo the BC vote bank.

‘Social justice plank’

PCC chief and MLC B. Mahesh Kumar Goud told The Hindu that the party has yet again shown its concern for social justice by giving the tickets to SC, ST and BC candidates. “We are committed to BC reservations and the recognition of sincere, hardworking, committed leaders is an example of that commitment,” he pointed out.

It was also said that the party preferred to give the fourth seat to its alliance partner CPI even as there was strong demand from the AIMIM to concede one seat. Sources said the Chief Minister was of the belief that CPI has grassroots support in the rural areas and that could be leveraged during the local bodies polls. The leadership is confident that it would convince the MIM as some more vacancies are expected in the next few months.

But, a section of the Congress leaders expressed surprise that when the SC sub-categorisation issue was raked up again in the aftermath of the one-man Commission of Inquiry report last month, the choice of a candidate from the Mala sub-caste would send a wrong signal.

Similarly, some leaders feel that in case of Ms. Vijayashanti, who has been given the ticket under BC quota, there were several other seniors from the Backward Classes aspiring for the ticket. They pointed out that the BC community to which Ms. Vijayashanti belongs has miniscule presence in the State.

Now, with the candidates finalised, the Congress and its friendly parties, CPI and the MIM, have to evolve a foolproof strategy to bag all four out of the five seats.

In the House of 119, Congress has 64 MLAs on its own while a couple of BRS legislators defected over a period of time. The BRS has 39 members, a figure which has depleted after defections to the ruling party. The MIM has seven MLAs, the BJP eight and the CPI one.

20 votes needed

Each candidate has to secure the support of 20 MLAs (19.80, to be precise) to get elected as per the formula devised on the basis of the total strength of the State Legislature which is 119. On its own strength, the Congress will bag three seats and the fourth seat can be wrested for the CPI with the support of its excess votes coupled with support from the MIM.

It would be interesting to see how the 10 BRS legislators, who have crossed over to the Congress, will act in this election.