Telangana Chief Minister and TRS Supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao has taken a calculated risk by fielding a fifth party nominee for the current MLC elections under the MLA quota, but unless he is able to split the other parties in a big way or get cross voting from the other parties.
The ruling TRS can comfortably win only four of the six seats for which polling is scheduled to take place on June 1.
Since each candidate for a win would require a minimum of 18 votes, TRS with a tally of 75 members in the Telangana Assembly can ensure a comfortable victory for four of its nominees without any hitch. However for the fifth nominee to sail through, the party falls short of as many as 15 members.
He can at the most mobilise the support of seven MIM members, a CPI MLA and an independent. Still, the TRS needs six more votes.
Assuming that even a CPI-M and a YSR Congress party MLA also vote for TRS candidate, the latter will still fall short of four votes. On the other hand, the TDP which has 15 MLAs has the support of BJP MLAs and hence, can comfortably win the seat.
Yet, KCR has taken a risk to field the fifth candidate; which means he is banking on “cross voting” from the TDP to win the fifth seat. If it works out, it will be a big success for KCR’s political game plan; but if it backfires, the ruling party’s image might get a beating for the worst.
The TRS had already suffered a setback in the recent MLC elections from the graduates’ constituency with the BJP supported candidate wresting the seat.
