N Chandrababu Naidu dashes Rajya Sabha seat hopes of Telangana TD leaders

Hyderabad: Telugu Desam national president N. Chandrababu Naidu has not responded favourably to the request by his party’s Telangana state unit leaders to allot one Rajya Sabha seat this time from the AP quota. Mr Naidu is believed to have told them that he cannot accommodate a TS leader for an RS seat from AP due to political pressures to fill all the seats from the state.

During the TD’s politburo meeting held on Tuesday in Vijayawada, TS TD president L. Ramana put forward the proposal to Mr Naidu seeking allotment of one RS seat to one of the party’s TS leaders.

However, sources quoted Mr Naidu as saying that he couldn’t consider the request due to pressures from AP leaders and also that he was not sure whether or not the party’s ally, the BJP, would seek one seat from AP this time.

Former Minister M. Narasimhulu suggested the name of TD women’s wing president Bandru Sobharani for filling up the vacancy on the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam Board caused by the exit of Secunderabad Cantonment MLA G. Sayanna who switched sides to the TRS.

Reacting to this, Mr Naidu said that he needs to do justice to former TD leader in the Legislative Council, Arike Narsa Reddy, and was considering his name. The TS leaders requested Mr Naidu to use his good offices with the Central government and suggested a few names for appointment to various Central public sector undertakings.

To this, the TD chief replied that there was already some displeasure among the BJP leaders about the posts not being filled up by the Centre in the last two years, and as such he couldn’t press the matter with the BJP at this stage.