Despite knowing fully well that it does not have enough strength in the Telangana state assembly, the Congress party is still trying its luck in the Rajya Sabha elections.
According to sources, the Congress party is planning to field a candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections.
The names of former Indian cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin and Pradesh Congress Committee treasurer Guduru Narayana Reddy are doing rounds in the party circles.
The party might announce the name by Sunday, since the last date for submission of nomination is Monday.
However, the Congress party requires at least 40 MLAs to win the Rajya Sabha seat. But it has just 12 MLAs in the Telangana state assembly.
If the defected TDP member A Revanth Reddy is also taken into consideration, its number is still 13. Even if the lone CPI member and an independent MLA support the Congress, the total strength of the party does not exceed 15.
The party think tank thought it can request the MIM, which has seven MLAs, to support the Congress nominee, besides the remaining two TDP MLAs. That would take the number to 24.
However, MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi tweeted on Saturday that his party would vote for the TRS candidates in the RS elections. And the TDP members – R Krishnaiah and S Venkata Veeraiah – might abstain from voting, but not vote for the Congress.
So, it is next to impossible for the party to win the Rajya Sabha elections. In fact, the Congress had won 21 MLAs in 2014 elections of which 9 MLAs defected to the TRS. Since they are officially the Congress MLAs as per records, the party can bring a psychological pressure on them by issuing a whip to vote for the official candidate.
In any case, the Congress knows it can’t win the RS seat. Yet, it wants to field the candidate because it does not want the TRS to walk away with three RS seats just like that with the support of defected MLAs and MIM support.
“Let there be a contest at least for the sake of contest. We don’t want to give it up without any fight,” a Congress leader said.
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