KCR nephew among 3 RS candidates

Joginapally Santosh, nephew of the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, is one of the three Rajya Sabha candidates announced by Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) on Sunday.

With this the number of relatives of KCR holding key positions will go up to four. While his son K Taraka Rama Rao is already a Minister holding several important portfolios and his daughter K Kavitha is the Member of Lok Sabha from Nizamabad, his nephew T Harish Rao is also a senior Minister.

Joginapally Santosh is general secretary of the TRS. He is MBA and a Masters in Personnel Management.

The other two candidates of TRS include B Lingaiah Yadav from Nalgonda and Banda Prakash Mudiraj from Warangal. The candidates will file their nomination papers on Monday.

Three Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana have fallen vacant following the retirement of two members CM Ramesh of Telugu Desam and R Anand Bhaskar of the Congress and death of another Congress member P Govardhan Reddy.

Apart from having strength of 89 members in the 120-member State Assembly, the TRS has also got the support of seven MLAs of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).

The Congress which has 13 members has also announced its decision to contest election necessitating polling on March 23. Party has fielded a Scheduled Tribe leader Balram Naik, former MP from Mahabubabad constituency.