Telangana Congress raised the bogey of electing a family member of Ramreddy Venkata Reddy to the Palair Assembly Constituency in recognition of his services to the Assembly. This suggestion had been made to the ruling party during the condolence references to Reddy in Assembly  who passed away on March 4 after a prolonged illness.

Paying rich tributes to the departed MLA, who was also chairman, PAC, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao recalled his association with Ramreddy Venkata Reddy. He himself moved the condolence motion, which the house adapted unanimously. Congress members G Chinna Reddy, Puvvada Ajay etc urged the government to name the Khammam Krishi Vignana Kendram after Ramreddy, who was minister for horticulture during the regime of chief minister Kirankumar Reddy.

In the same breath they urged the government to elect unanimously a member from Ramreddy family to the Assembly in recognition of his contribution to the Palair constituency. Opposition leader K Jana Reddy lauded the affection Reddy earned from the people of the constituency and said no wave could affect his win in palair in general elections.

But there was no immediate response from chief minister Rao to Chinnareddy and Ajay’s suggestion. TRS basically is opposed to leaving the constituency of a department member to his kin. When Congress wanted son of Krishna Reddy, then MLA , to be elected unanimously for the Narayankhed constituency in his father’s place, TRS opposed it. This forced a byelection to the constituency in which TRS won with thumping majority. Similarly given the prevailing pink wave in Telangana as evident from the election to Warangal Lok Sabha constituency, GHMC, Narayankhed Assembly constituency, Municipal corporation of Warangal and Khammam and Nagar Panchayat of Achampet, TRS is unlikely to agree for the nomination of a member from Ramreddy Venkata Reddy’s family to the Assembly.

TRS members are confident of winning the Palair seat in the byelections. But, can Congress retain the seat banking on the goodwill earned by Ramreddy Venkata Reddy?

Reddy, a four-time MLA, represented Palair constituency in Khammam district, fort two terms. He first got elected from Palair in 2009 and was minister for horticulture in Congress governments. He withstood TRS wave in 2014 and won for the second term.