At a time when there is a lot of uncertainty over the fate of the Congress party in the State, especially in the Seemandhra region, the decision of YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy not to field any candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections took everybody by surprise.
The YSR Congress party has 17 MLAs, besides the open support from six other MLAs. All that it requires is the backing of another 16 MLAs to win the Rajya Sabha seat.
Yet, Jagan refused to field a candidate. Reason being cited by his party leaders is that he does not want to take support from any other party so that it could retain its identity.
However, what surprised everybody was the way Jagan opted out of the RS poll contest, five days ahead of the closure of the nominations.
He could have kept quiet and waited till the last moment to let the political developments unfold by January 28, the last date for filing nominations.
Had the YSR Congress party fielded a fourth candidate in the RS polls, then there would have been a contest and the process would have dragged till February 5, the polling date.
By that time, the Telangana bill would reach the Parliament from the State Assembly and the Congress party in the Seemandhra region would have split into several pieces.
Many of them would have obviously shifted their loyalties to the YSR Congress party and voted for its candidate in the RS elections.
It appears that Jagan did not want to take the risk at this stage, as he, perhaps, does not have the confidence of enough number of defections from the Congress in the wake of the talk of new party by the Chief Minister.
And if the Jagan party candidate loses the RS polls, it would be a loss of face for him in Seemandhra!
