Congress to help TRS win RS seat?

HYDERABAD: Aiming to smoothen the merger process, the Congress high command has reportedly offered to support the TRS in bagging its first Rajya Sabha nomination. While Congress sources claimed the TRS had in principle accepted the offer and was likely to field its secretary general K Keshava Rao, the latter said it was still to decide on the issue.
Of the six RS vacancies for which elections, the Congress is expected to win three seats and the TDP two keeping in mind their respective strengths in the Assembly. In case no candidate is fielded by the YSRCP or any other party, then the three Congress candidates, two of the TDP and one TRS nominee, can expect towin the elections unanimously.
The Congress has 140 MLAs and each candidate requires 40 votes to win a Rajya Sabha seat. Thus the Congress will have about 20 surplus votes after its members vote for the three nominees. The Congress strategy for the fourth seat is that the TRS candidate will win if he is supported by MIM, CPI and the surplus votes of the Congress.
The TRS is claiming to have 22 votes (17 plus 5 others) while the MIM has seven and CPI four. "Going by the floor coordination between TRS and MIM in the Assembly, the latter should have no problem in backing the TRS candidate," said sources. To ensure TRS victory, the Congress would instruct about 10 of the 50 MLAs from the Telangana region to vote for its ally, they added.
But the TRS' chances could be upset if either the YSR Congress or chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy decides to field a candidate. The YSR Congress is likely to take a decision on contesting the RS once its president Jaganmohan Reddy returns to Hyderabad on Thursday, while Kiran is said to be toying with the idea of fielding T Narendra Chowdhary, a close friend of his and owner of a TV channel. However, according to sources, the Congress high command has persuaded the CM not to put up any candidate of his own.
M A Khan, Ratna Bai, K V P Ramachandra Rao,T Subbarami Reddy and Nandi Yellaiah are the five Congress Rajya Sabha members who are retiring. Of them, the Congress is likely to renominate Khan, Ratna Bai and KVP and leave the fourth seat to the TRS.
Asked about the Congress offer of supporting its candidate for the Rajya Sabha, TRS politburo member B Vinod Kumar said the party is still to take a call on it.