The resignation of V Vijay Sai Reddy from his Rajya Sabha seat on Saturday has created another vacancy from Andhra Pradesh in the Upper House and as he himself has admitted, the seat will go to the Telugu Desam Party or its alliance partners – Jana Sena Party or the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The YSR Congress party which had 11 seats in Rajya Sabha had already lost three seats due to resignation of Mopidevi Venkata Ramana, Beeda Mastan Rao and R Krishnaiah.
In the by-elections to these three seats held recently, the TDP nominated Sana Satish and Beeda Mastan Rao, while allotting the third seat to the BJP which renominated R Krishnaiah.
Now with the resignation of Sai Reddy from his seat, the strength of the YSRCP has come down to seven and if the reports of another YSRCP MP Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy also quitting turn out to be true, then the YSRCP strength would further shrink to six.
Now the question is: who will be the new candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat from the coalition for the RS seat vacated by Sai Reddy? Will the candidate be from TDP or BJP or Jana Sena?
The coalition government in Andhra Pradesh functions through mutual agreement among the three parties. However, when it comes to Rajya Sabha nominations, the BJP appears to be asserting its dominance.
During the recent by-elections to the three RS seats which fell vacant due to the resignation of three YSRCP MPs, the Jana Sena Party wanted one seat, while the TDP would retain three seats.
Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan wanted his brother Nagababu to be nominated to Rajya Sabha.
But the BJP leadership brought pressure on Pawan Kalyan and made him sacrifice the seat to their party. And BJP gave it to Krishnaiah who won the seat.
Now, with Vijaya Sai Reddy’s resignation, another Rajya Sabha seat has become available for the coalition.
Apparently, Jana Sena Party is expected to pitch for its candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu, too, might not say no.
Yet, reports from New Delhi indicate that the BJP leadership has already sent a message to Naidu and Pawan Kalyan that this seat, too, should be given to the saffron party.
Naidu might try to convince the BJP national leadership, if Pawan Kalyan insists on the RS seat, but if the BJP is stubborn, they cannot say no.
Previously, three Backward Class (BC) MPs from the YSRCP joined the coalition, and two out of three Rajya Sabha seats were allocated to the BC community.
Since Sai Reddy belongs to the Reddy community, the seat vacated by him might also go to a Reddy leader of the BJP.
According to BJP sources, the party national leadership might suggest the name of former chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy in the post.
Alternatively, it might suggest the name of a north Indian leader for the same, sources added.
