HYDERABAD: His selection was unexpected. His name was not even on the cards till Sunday morning. But fortune saw to it that PCC general secretary Rapolu Ananda Bhaskar filed his nomination papers for Rajya Sabha seat on Monday, along with three other Congress nominees-- Chiranjeevi, Renuka Chowdary and Palvai Govardhan Reddy.According to sources, party president Sonia Gandhi had asked AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes to suggest the name of a woman from a Padmashali family to be fielded for Rajya Sabha. However, Fernandes could not come up with any female candidate. So, he started looking for suitable men from Padmashali community. The name of former MP K Vittal Rao, from Mahbubnagar, was suggested, but the party leadership was not impressed with his track record as a public figure.Then Vittal Rao himself was asked to suggest a candidate. Thus came Ananda Bhaskar forward. Fernandes crosschecked Bhaskar's credentials with former PCC president D Srinivas before suggesting his name to the Congress president. Ananda Bhaskar was a loyalist of Srinivas.Another factor that helped Bhaskar was that he is from the Telangana region. He hails from Warangal district. Incidentally, this is the first time that a Congress leader from this district is set to find his way to the Rajya Sabha. As a journalist, Bhaskar worked for Udayam, Eenadu and Andhra Prabha dailies and also wrote a book on journalism.After Bhaskar's name was out, it appears that many people want to take credit for his selection. Since Bhaskar is a PCC general secretary, PCC president Botcha Satyanayarayana is understood to be claiming that it was he who had lobbied for him 'to do justice' to weavers. Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy's supporters say it was their leader who put forth the name of Bhaskar before the party president.Whoever is responsible for it, Ananda Bhaskar is on cloud nine.
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