A few days after Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy vowed to renominate Professor Kodandaram Reddy as MLC despite a Supreme Court stay in place, his cabinet has decided to recommend his candidature along with Congress leader and former cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin for MLC posts under Governor’s quota. The decision has been taken on Saturday on the eve of the ongoing assembly session in Hyderabad.

It is a known fact that the Supreme Court two weeks ago stayed the earlier nominations of Kodandaram Reddy and Amer Ali Khan to the council due to the fact that both of them were nominated illegally when a case was pending in the apex court on those two vacancies after the Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi filed a petition against these nominations. They were initially nominated by the BRS government. But, the Governor did not clear the names citing technical reasons. The Congress government later nominated them after coming to power. So, the court intervened and reiterated that these appointments would be approved subject to the outcome of the legal proceedings.

Last week, Revanth Reddy during his visit to Osmania University asserted that Professor Kodandaram would be re-nominated at any cost no matter whatever hurdles are in place. Today, the Telangana cabinet unanimously approved both Kodandaram Reddy and Azharuddin for the council under the same quota.

This is an interesting move by Revanth Reddy’s government because it seems like this decision will be a shot aimed for two birds. By recommending Kodandaram, Revanth Reddy has once again proved that he is not going to hold back at his aggressive political decisions even though the BRS has been trying its best to pose legal hurdles on his way. Also, the nomination of Azharuddin clearly hints that the Congress high command is going to field a BC leader in the Jubilee Hills constituency for the upcoming bypolls.