The Election Commission on Wednesday released the schedule for the biennial elections to Rajya Sabha to fill 37 seats falling vacant from 10 states for which polling will be held on March 16.
Among them, two seats from Telangana are going to fall vacant on completion of the term of K R Suresh Reddy (BRS) and Abhishek Singhvi (Congress), whose term will end by April 9.
In Andhra Pradesh, four seats are going to fall vacant in June and the Election Commission is expected to issue another round of notification in May.
The retiring MPs include YSR Congress party members Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy, Parimal Nathwani, and Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose, along with TDP member Sana Satish Babu.
Needless to say, all the four Rajya Sabha seats from Andhra Pradesh are expected to go to the ruling coalition this time, as YSRCP doesn't have enough numbers to retain any of them.
As per the understanding within the alliance, out of four seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Jana Sena Party might expect one seat each, while the TDP will nominate its candidates for the remaining two seats.
While it is expected that Naidu might renominate Sana Satish Babu, who happens to be a close friend of Lokesh; several names are doing rounds for the second seat – including veteran leader Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, former MP Galla Jayadev, former MLA Vangaveeti Radhakrishna or even a prominent woman leader.
According to the latest reports, Naidu is considering the name of Rajesh Kilaru, yet another friend and trusted lieutenant of Lokesh, for the second RS seat.
Though his name is not very familiar with the common people, he is a known figure in the TDP circles as a man who is playing behind-the-screen role in guiding and advising Lokesh.
Kilaru, son of a chartered accountant from Vijayawada, was a classmate of Lokesh since primary school at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Hyderabad. They were bosom friends since childhood and subsequently, he had become a shadow of Lokesh.
An engineering graduate from a Hyderabad college, Kilaru then gained a Masters from Robert Morris University, the US. Later, he has become a part of Lokesh’s inner team.
Kilaru was the man behind the 3,132 km Yuvagalam padayatra undertaken by Nara Lokesh in 2023. The entire planning and organisation of the padayatra was done by Kilaru, which helped the TDP return to power.
During the YSRCP government, Kilaru was targeted by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) in connection with the alleged skill development project case, AP Fibernet and Amaravati Inner Ring Road alignment cases, but the government could not find any evidence against him.
When Naidu was in jail, it was Kilaru, who helped Lokesh rally national-level support for the TDP chief in Delhi.
Presently, Kilaru is a state executive secretary in TDP, supervising and monitoring all the major party activities from behind the screen, sources said.
