Hyderabad: With the Telugu Desam deciding not to field a fourth candidate with the support of defected YSR Congress MLAs, elections for the four Rajya Sabha seats from AP and two from TS will be unanimous.
All eyes were on the TD till the stroke of 3 pm on Tuesday, the time process of filing of nomination papers ended, waiting to see whether the party was ready for large-scale management of Opposition MLAs.
Fielding a fourth candidate could have been risky, since sometimes the outcome may go against the ruling party candidates due to cumbersome voting procedure.
The TD’s decision has paved the way for all the four candidates from AP —Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu (BJP), Union minister of state for science and technology Sujana Chowdary and former minister T.G. Venkatesh (TD), and Venumbaka Vijay Sai Reddy (YSRC) — to be declared elected at the end of scrutiny of papers on June 1. The last day of withdrawal of nominations is on June 3.
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Mr Vijay Sai Reddy took the precaution by asking his wife Sunanda Reddy to file a set of nomination papers. She would be withdrawing her nomination after scrutiny. This would be the first time the YSRC would be represented in the Rajya Sabha. However, the TD’s strength in the Upper House would remain at six (both TS and AP).
The three TD-BJP alliance candidates filed their papers on Tuesday with K. Satyanarayana Rao, the Returning Officer; all of them told the media that they would strive for the well-being of the AP people and to get justice for the residuary state.
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With regard to TS, former ministers D. Srinivas and Capt V. Laxmikantha Rao filed their papers on behalf of the party before S. Raja Sadaram, the Returning Officer. Since no other nomination papers were filed, they will declared elected on June 3.
Both candidates vowed to work hard to usher in ‘Bangaru Telangana’ as promised by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. The TRS strength in the Rajya Sabha is set to rise to three.
