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Naidu To Drop Third Candidate Plan?

Naidu To Drop Third Candidate Plan?

Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is learnt to have dropped the plan for fielding a third candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections.

Going the strength of the parties in the AP assembly, the TDP can win two Rajya Sabha seats comfortably, while the YSR Congress party with 44 seats can win the third one.

However, the information hitherto was that the TDP might field a third candidate since it has the support of 23 YSRC MLAs who defected to the TDP in the past.

If it can mobilise the support of four Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs and can lure two more YSRC MLAs into its fold, it can win the third seat as well, thereby defeating YSRC candidate Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy. If the elections are necessitated, the polling is scheduled to be held on March 23.

However, according to the latest information coming from the TDP sources, Naidu has backtracked on fielding the third candidate for various reasons.

First, the TDP cannot seek the support of the four BJP MLAs, since the relations between the two parties are strained beyond repair despite the fact that the TDP continues to be a part of the NDA and an ally of the BJP.

Secondly, Naidu has realised that all the 44 MLAs are solidly behind YSRC president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy and all the secret attempts to lure them into the TDP have become futile.

Thirdly, even if Naidu can still make an attempt to attract a few more MLAs by threats or intimidations (there is attempt to get YSRC MLA Kotamreddy Sridhar Reddy from Nellore arrested in an alleged betting case), it would only bring a bad name to the TDP among the people and that might prove counter-productive in the coming days.

So, Naidu thought it is better to restrict the number of RS candidates only to two!

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