Contrary to the expectations, Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao ignored his daughter Kalvakuntla Kavitha in selecting candidates for Rajya Sabha elections being held this month.
Instead, he preferred to re-nominate TRS parliamentary party leader Kancherla Kesava Rao for a second term.
In fact, there was a talk that Kesava Rao would not be given the RS ticket again, as he is already 80-year old and has not been very active in Parliament.
Since Kavitha has wide connections in Delhi and has good relations with the NDA leaders, everybody expected that KCR would prefer his daughter to Kesava Rao.
But KCR is learnt to have other plans for Kavitha. Probably, he is likely to involve her more in the state-level party activities and once his son K T Rama Rao is given the mantle of the government, he might make Kavitha as the working president of the party.
There was a tough competition for the second Rajya Sabha seat. Initially, the name of former Khammam MP Ponguleti Srinivasulu Reddy was leaked to the media, but KCR changed his mind.
The names of Namasthe Telangana MD Damodar Rao and even that of My Home Group chairman J Rameshwar Rao were doing rounds.
But, KCR preferred K R Suresh Reddy, former speaker of combined Andhra Pradesh, for the second seat. Apparently, KCR had promised to RS seat to Suresh Reddy when he joined the TRS before the assembly elections in December 2018.
The TRS, which has 104 members in the 119-member state assembly can easily win both the Rajya Sabha seats.
