Eight candidates, including two Congress rebels, filed nomination papers for the six Rajya Sabha seats from Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday. Congress' T Subbrami Reddy, K V P Ramachandra Rao and M A Khan, who have been renominated by the party, filed their papers while Telugu Desam's Garikapati Mohan Rao and Sitarama Lakshmi also submitted their nominations to Legislature secretary S Raja Sadaram.
Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, Deputy CM Damodara Rajanarasimha, PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana and some other ministers accompanied the Congress nominees. Former MP K Keshava Rao, who defected from the Congress, filed his papers as Telangana Rashtra Samiti candidate for the biennial election slated for February 7.
Congress MLC K V Satyanarayana Raju alias Chaitanya Raju and MLA Adala Prabhakar Reddy, too, filed their papers as party rebels in the name of "United Andhra Pradesh." Interestingly, two ministers Ganta Srinivasa Rao and Erasu Pratap Reddy were said to have supported the candidature of Chaitanya Raju.
"Raju said he will secure the party's candidature, hence I signed the nomination in his support," Pratap Reddy said. Senior-most MLA J C Diwakar Reddy, who had been telling over the past few days that he, too, would be in the fray, backed out of the contest on Tuesday. Congress sources claimed that JC opted out to ensure the "Samaikya Andhra" votes did not split.
Meanwhile, Satyanarayana said disciplinary action would be initiated against the legislators who filed nominations as rebels. Action would also be taken on MLAs who supported the rebels' candidature, he added.
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