MLC polls: Vijayashanti in 3 Cong picks; CPI to contest 1

Hyderabad: A day before the filing of nominations end, Congress and CPI finalised the names of four candidates for MLC seats. Five MLC seats under the MLAs quota will go to polls on March 20.
AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday approved the names of Addanki Dayakar, Kethavath Shankar Naik and Vijayashanti for the three MLC seats, and allotted one seat to ally CPI. Hours later, CPI named state executive member N Satyam as its candidate.
While Congress can easily win three and BRS one, going by the legislators on their sides, the grand old party can win the fourth seat with the support of 10 BRS turncoats and seven AIMIM MLAs. Congress candidates would file their nominations on Monday morning.
The AICC leadership took caste equations as a major factor in finalising the candidates from among the numerous aspirants, including veterans, young guns and those who joined Congress after the assembly elections in 2023.
Addanki Dayakar is from the Scheduled Caste (Mala), while Shankar Naik, is a Lambada, from the Scheduled Tribes community. Vijayashanti is from the BC community and was also finalised under the women's quota. Addanki is a loyalist of chief minister A Revanth Reddy. Naik is close to party veteran K Jana Reddy and has worked for the party for the past 30 years.
The final list of names sent by Telangana Congress to AICC reportedly did not have Vijayashanti's name.
"The party high command, especially Sonia Gandhi, was reportedly in favour of Vijayashanti being made an MLC. The talk in AICC headquarters is that TPCC could not utilise her services properly and she has a lot of potential and place in the hearts of Telangana people. It will not be a surprise if she makes it to the cabinet too," an AICC source said.
The actress, dubbed ‘Lady Amitabh', started her political journey with BJP in 1998, then launched the Thalli Telangana party. Later she joined BRS and won as Lok Sabha member from Medak, but after that joined Congress. However, she quit Congress in Nov 2020 and rejoined BJP on Dec 6, 2020. In Nov 2023, she left BJP and rejoined Congress the same month.
Dayakar worked as the official spokesperson of TPCC. He contested twice from the Thungathurthy assembly segment and lost. He sacrificed his assembly seat for a better candidate in 2023, following which then TPCC president Revanth promised him an MLC seat.
CPI's Satyam is from the combined Nalgonda district. He twice withdrew from the Munugode assembly poll race, first, when CPI supported BRS in a by-poll, and second time in favour of Congress candidate after CPI aligned with the party during the 2023 polls.