Telangana: Congress renominates Abhishek Singhvi, fields Vem Narender Reddy for RS

The Congress party has nominated senior leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Telangana chief minister A. Revanth Reddy’s close associate Vem Narender Reddy as its candidates for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Telangana.

The party leadership opted to give Singhvi another term in the Upper House while selecting Narender Reddy over several senior aspirants who had been lobbying intensively for the second nomination. Both candidates are scheduled to file their nomination papers on Thursday, the final day for submissions.

Polling for the two Rajya Sabha seats from the state is set to take place on 16 March. The vacancies arise as the terms of Singhvi and K.R. Suresh Reddy conclude on 9 April. Suresh Reddy currently serves as the Parliamentary Party leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi in the Rajya Sabha.

Singhvi, a senior advocate in the Supreme Court, was elected to the Upper House in 2024 as a Congress nominee, filling the seat vacated by K. Keshava Rao, who resigned after joining the Congress. Party sources indicated that the leadership valued Singhvi’s legal expertise and his articulate interventions in Parliament, viewing them as significant assets at the national level.

The second ticket had attracted considerable interest from prominent Congress figures, including veteran leader Shyam Mohan Anantula, former Rajya Sabha member V. Hanumantha Rao, Telangana State Planning Board Chairman G. Chinna Reddy, former MP Madhu Yaskhi Goud, and M. Kodanda Reddy, who heads the Telangana Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Commission.

Narender Reddy expressed gratitude to the Congress high command and senior leaders for reposing confidence in him. In a message shared on social media, he thanked Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary K. C. Venugopal, MP Priyanka Gandhi, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, Congress in-charge for Telangana Meenakshi Natarajan, Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka, and PCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud.

A few months after the Congress assumed office in Telangana, Narender Reddy was appointed Adviser (Public Affairs) to the Chief Minister. A former legislator from Mahabubabad, he was elected to the undivided Andhra Pradesh Assembly in 2004 on a Telugu Desam Party ticket.

He later contested the 2012 by-election from Hanumakonda but was unsuccessful, and also failed to secure a seat in the Legislative Council from the MLAs’ quota in 2015. Narender Reddy joined the Congress ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections, along with Revanth Reddy, with whom he shares a longstanding political association dating back to their days in the Telugu Desam Party.

With IANS inputs