Four years ago, the opposition Telugu Desam Party fielded its candidate – party’s politburo member Varla Ramaiah, for the Rajya Sabha biennial election for four seats from Andhra Pradesh held on March 26, 2020, though the party lacked the requisite numbers to win a seat.
Though the YSRCP, which had 151 MLAs in the assembly, could win all the four seats, the TDPs entry into the fray made the election inevitable. As at least 43 votes are required to win a Rajya Sabha seat, the TDP did not stand any chance.
The TDP, for the record, has 23 MLAs in the 175-member state assembly but two of them had rebelled against the party by then. Later, two more TDP MLAs switched over to the YSRC.
Naidu said then that his party had no hopes of winning as it did not expect any crossvoting, but it only wanted to expose the double standards of the government. So, the fifth candidate in the fray made the election inevitable, but as expected, Varla Ramaiah lost the elections with a huge margin.
In 2022 Rajya Sabha elections, however, the TDP did not dare repeat the same strategy. But now, four years later, the TDP wants to contest the Rajya Sabha elections again, despite knowing that it still doesn’t have the strength.
The Election Commission on Monday announced schedule for elections to three Rajya Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh to be held on February 27.
The seats in AP are falling vacant due to the completion of the term of C M Ramesh (BJP), Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy (YSRCP) and Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar (TDP).
The TDP is hoping that this time, there will be cross voting from disgruntled YSRCP MLAs, since YSRCP president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has denied assembly tickets to around 30 MLAs for the coming elections,
The TDP is hopeful that these dropped MLAs may not vote for the YSRCP candidates in Rajya Sabha elections. If the TDP fields any candidate, there is a probability that these dropped MLAs might vote for him.
According to the sources in the TDP, Naidu is planning to field Varla Ramaiah again or some other suitable candidate.
That is precisely why, the ruling party wants to get the rebel YSRCP MLAs disqualified so that they won’t vote for the TDP. The acceptance of the Visakhapatnam (north) MLA’s resignation and move to disqualify four rebel YSRCP MLAs are part of this plan to reduce the strength of the TDP.
