In a sudden and surprising decision, the Central Election Committee of the Bharatiya Janata Party has announced the candidature of Paka Venkata Satyanarayana as the party candidate for the by-election to the vacant Rajya Sabha seat in Andhra Pradesh.
Venkata Satyanarayana, who hails from Bhimavaram in West Godavari district. is presently BJP vice-president of Andhra unit and also disciplinary committee chairman.
He also worked as Bhimavaram municipal councillor in the past. He is expected to file nomination on Tuesday, the last day for the same.
Satyanarayana is relatively a low-profile leader in the party and has never been seen actively participating in the party meetings. Most of the times, he stays in Hyderabad.
Yet, for the reasons known to the party leaders, the BJP high command picked him for the Rajya Sabha seat.
Initially, there were reports from New Delhi that Union home minister Amit Shah preferred former Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai for the vacant RS seat from AP. The name of former Union minister Smriti Irani also came up for discussion.
Later, it was also leaked to the media that Andhra Pradesh chief minister and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu recommended the name of Madiga leader Manda Krishna Madiga for the RS seat and that it was more or less accepted.
The name, which was to be announced last week itself, got postponed due to the Pahalgam incident.
But on Monday, the BJP leadership sprang a surprise by choosing Paka Venkata Satyanarayana for the RS seat, which fell vacant due to the resignation of former YSRCP general secretary V Vijay Sai Reddy.
