Rajya Sabha poll sees YSRC take a last minute U-turn

HYDERABAD: The YSR Congress continued to remain ambiguous on its preferred partner at the Centre by abstaining from the election for the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman post on Thursday. The ruling parties in TS and AP — the TRS and the TD — however made their choice by voting for the NDA and the Congress candidates respectively. In a boost to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), its candidate Harivansh Narayan Singh, the 62-year-old first-time MP from the Nitish Kumar-led party, got 125 votes as against 105 polled by Hariprasad, who was the opposition nominee.

TRS MPs voted for the winning side while TD MPs voted for the losing side. Till Wednesday night, YSRC MPs had said that they will vote against the NDA candidate and in favour of Opposition candidate. But in the last minute, YSRC took a u-turn and abstained from the voting.   YSRC MP V. Vijaya Sai Reddy declared that they are neither supporting the NDA candidate nor the Congress candidate as the BJP and the Congress have both cheated AP people. 

He said that they thought the Opposition will field a candidate from other than Congress. but since the Opposition candidate belongs to the Congress, he said his party has decided to abstain from voting.   There are speculations on a secret tie between the BJP and the YSRC. The decision of YSRC to abstain from voting helped the NDA candidate indirectly. In the polls to select President of India and Vice-President, YSRC had supported BJP-led NDA candidates in the President and vice-president elections.

The TRS and the TD have made their political stand clear through their vote in this election. The TRS is anti-Congress, while the TD is anti-BJP. However, none of them openly spoke about who they support. It is a known fact that Telangana State Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is moving closely with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has a soft corner towards Congress. Former Union Minister and MP Y.S. Chowdary said that they have voted in favour of B.K. Hariprasad because he belongs to BC community.

Recently, Congress and TD were moving closely in many issues in Parliament. Y.S. Chowdary said that their relation with Congress is confined to Parliament only. TRS MPs said that since JDU Chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar personally requested CM KCR to support his party candidate, they voted for the JDU candidate and he is not a BJP candidate.

Meanwhile, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar telephoned to CM KCR and thanked for the support of TRS MPs to his party candidate in the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman election. In addition to conveying his thanks for casting TRS members’ vote in favour of his party candidate, Nitish Kumar also mentioned that their support would be there in future for Telangana’s development. CM KCR also congratulated Nitish Kumar on the victory of his party candidate in the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Post.