Date:15/03/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/03/15/stories/2006031509490600.htm

Andhra Pradesh

No Rajya Sabha seat yet for TRS

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti would have to wait for its turn to get a Rajya Sabha seat from Andhra Pradesh. The TRS, which contested the 2004 Assembly polls along with the Congress, had demanded a seat from among the five of the six vacancies that the ruling party could win in the biennial elections.

The Congress has already allotted its fifth seat to the Communist Party of India as part of the pre-poll pact and plans to contest the rest. Last time, the Congress had allotted a seat to the CPI(M) and in all likelihood the TRS would have to wait till the next batch of vacancies arise.

Meanwhile, sources said the party was on the verge of finalising the list of candidates for the four seats. The front-runners include Pradesh Congress chief K. Kesava Rao and Raashid Alvi, the former Bahujan Samaj Party leader from Uttar Pradesh, who was elected for filling K.M. Khan's vacancy for the residual term in 2004. .