BRS Chooses to Avoid Another Ignominy of Defeat, Stays Away From RS Poll
Though there had been some speculation that the BRS might enter the fray despite not having the requisite strength to ensure a win for its candidate, it became clear on Thursday that it would not do so.
Hyderabad:The BRS, with its depleted strength in the Assembly, has for the second time in a row decided to avoid the ignominy of a certain defeat by not fielding its candidate for the Rajya Sabha election scheduled for March 16. The elections are to fill two vacancies, one of which arose as the term of BRS Parliamentary Party leader K.R. Suresh Reddy comes to an end.
Though there had been some speculation that the BRS might enter the fray despite not having the requisite strength to ensure a win for its candidate, it became clear on Thursday that it would not do so. During the 2024 bypoll to fill the Rajya Sabha vacancy after member K. Keshava Rao resigned his seat, the BRS had sent out feelers that it could contest the election but ultimately did not.
The BRS, which was defeated by the Congress in the 2023 Assembly elections and then routed in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections—failing to win a single seat out of the 17 Telangana has in the House—is now facing a further decline, with its number in the Rajya Sabha dropping from four to three.
The BRS, which had four members in the upper house of Parliament, including Suresh Reddy whose term ends on April 9, will now be left with three in the Rajya Sabha: Vaddiraju Ravichandra, whose term ends on April 2, 2030, and B. Parthasaradhi Reddy and D. Damodar Rao, whose terms end on June 21, 2028.