After a lot of dilly dallying and holding consultations with the stake holders, crucial leaders of the party, TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu has zeroed in on the Rajya Sabha candidates from the party.
Naidu’s close confidante CM Ramesh, who belongs to Rayalaseema region and represents Velama community, has been given one more term to continue as Rajya Sabha member.
On the other hand, from Andhra region Varla Ramaiah, who hails from Dalit community, has been given the opportunity to represent Rajya Sabha.
Although there was stiff competition from several party leaders and industrialists, Naidu has decided to balance and hence finalized CM Ramesh and Varla Ramaiah as the candidates.
Since TDP decided to announce only two of its candidates, this would be unanimous victory. Although there was talk of announcing the third candidate from TDP, TDP later seems to have dropped its plan for its own reasons.
If TDP announces the third Rajya Sabha candidate, it needs the votes of two more MLAs. Though TDP was confident of luring two MLAs from YSRCP with ministries – that were recently vacated by two BJP MLAs, the trouble for TDP was from BJP whose 4 MLAs may abstain from voting this results in TDP to either talk to BJP’s central leadership or to lure 4 more MLAs from YSRCP. Since TDP and BJP’s ties have severed and their differences reached pinnacle, Chandrababu decided to settle with 2 Rajya Sabha seats and doesn’t want to take any risk at the moment due to public anger on BJP.
On the other hand, YSRCP has already announced its candidate as Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy, an industrialist from Nellore district. With TDP settling for only two candidates, YSRCP candidate’s election is almost unanimous.