Though the Parliament elections are still a year away, scramble has begun in the Telangana Rashtra Samiti for safer seats. The Medak constituency, presently represented by film star Vijayshanti, has become the bone of contention.
With the speculation rife in the party that TRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao wants the seat for himself as he wants to move out from Mehbubnagar constituency to his home turf, Vijayshanti was blistering over the prospects of the party denying her re-nomination. Another name doing the rounds for the ticket from Medak is that of a retired IAS officer KV Ramanachary.
Ramanachary, who is going to formally join the TRS soon, is aspiring for the ticket from Medak lok Sabha constituency, represented by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1980.
An upset Vijayshanti has refused to yield any pressure and leave the seat for any IAS or IPS officer. “Why should I vacate my seat for an IAS officer who served all his life in a Government which was anti-Telangana people,” she said.
However, if the TRS president was interested in contesting from Medak district, she was open for discussion, Vijayshanti said.
The TRS president was also mulling the idea of fielding his daughter Kavita from Nizamabad lok Sabha constituency. Kavita is president of the Telangana Jagruti, a cultural organisation fighting for Telangana but was not averse to join the TRS to fight the elections.
If Kavita contests, she will be the fourth member of KCR family to do so. While KCR is already a member of Parliament, his son K Taraka Rama Rao was a member of State Assembly, so was his nephew T Harish Rao.
According to the sources, the party was preparing the first list of candidates, which will include four names for lok Sabha and at least 25 names for the Assembly seats. There are 17 lok Sabha and 119 Assembly seats in the region.