Actress Vijayashanthi among three Cong candidates for Telangana MLC poll

Hyderabad, Mar 9 (PTI) The AICC on Sunday announced yesteryear film actress Vijayashanthi, along with Addanki Dayakar and Kethavath Shankar Naik, as its candidates for the March 20 election to the Telangana Legislative Council by MLAs, while leaving one seat for its pre-poll ally, the CPI.
    AICC general secretary K C Venugopal issued a statement to this effect.
    The election to fill five vacancies in the council has been necessitated by the retirement of four sitting BRS MLCs and one AIMIM MLC.
    Vijayashanthi, who acted in Telugu and other language films, previously served as a Lok Sabha member on behalf of BRS (then TRS). She had floated a party to fight for Telangana statehood and later worked with BRS, BJP, and Congress.
    TPCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud said the party chose Vijayashanthi as it wanted to "give the opportunity to a woman and the backward classes."
    Addanki Dayakar, who belongs to the Scheduled Castes, is a vocal leader in Congress, while Shankar Naik, who hails from the Scheduled Tribes, has been a loyal Congress worker for many years.
    Congress allotted one seat to its ally CPI as part of its electoral alliance understanding.
    In the 119-member Telangana Legislative Assembly, the ruling Congress has a strength of 65, while the main opposition BRS has 38, though 10 of its MLAs have shifted loyalties to Congress.
    Congress and BRS are expected to win four and one seats, respectively, based on their strength in the Assembly.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)