Hyderabad, March 7 : The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Thursday announced that N. Naveen Kumar Reddy will be its candidate for the bye-election to Telangana Legislative Council from Mahabubnagar local bodies constituency.

BRS President and former Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao finalised Naveen Kumar's candidature for the March 28 by-election.

The BRS said in a statement that the party chief took the decision after taking into account the views of party leaders from the united Mahabubnagar district.

Hailing from Mamidipalli village in Nandigama mandal, Naveen Reddy was vice-chairman of the united Mahabubnagar Zilla Parishad.

The vacancy arose after Kasireddy Narayan Reddy of the BRS resigned and successfully contested as a Congress candidate from Kalwakurthy Assembly constituency in the recent elections.

As per the schedule announced by the Election Commission of India, nominations will be received from March 4 and the last date is March 11. Election will be held on March 28 and counting of votes will be held on April 2.

Meanwhile, BRS leader and former minister S. Niranjan Reddy has exuded confidence that BRS will retain the seat. He said the constituency has 1,445 voters. Of them, 1006 were elected on BRS 'B' form.

He claimed that BRS still has 850 voters even after the disqualification of some public representatives due to various reasons and the death of a few voters.

He asked the party leaders in Mahabubnagar district to work unitedly for the victory of the party candidate.

/IANS