Rajya Sabha Election: Will 3 Rebel MLAs Vote For TDP?

The much anticipated Rajya Sabha election is going to be held today across the nation. Election is being held for 19 vacant seats across the 8 states. In Andhra Pradesh, the contest is for the 4 seats. While ruling YSRCP has fielded 4 candidates, the Opposition TDP has fielded 1 candidate.

Pilli Subhash Chandrabose, Mopidevi Venkataramana, Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy and Reliance’s Parimal Nathwani were the four candidates of YSRCP who are contesting for the four Rajya Sabha seats. Whereas, TDP fielded party general secretary Varla Ramiah for the key post. While YCP has 151 MLAs, TDP has only 23 MLAs. Out of the 23 MLAs, 3 MLAs turned out to be rebel MLAs as they have been maintaining distance from the party activities. With this, the voting turned out to be crucial and interesting.

As per yesterday’s meeting within the party, YCP leaders have decided that 37 MLAs would vote for each candidate. CM YS Jagan is going to vote for BC leader Pilli Subash Chandrabose. TDP has only 20 MLAs as three MLAs are rebels. TDP has issued a Whip to all the party MLAs and ordered them to participate in the voting without fail. The party has also appointed an Agent to whom every MLA has to disclose the vote before casting the vote. Amidst this, all eyes are on the three rebel TDP MLAs Vallabhaneni Vamsi (Gannavaram constituency), Karanam Balaram (Chirala constituency) and Maddali Giri (Guntur West constituency).

On the other hand, YCP is in a comfortable situation where it could win all its four candidates with ease. TDP is short of 13 MLAs even if all the three 3 rebel MLAs vote for its candidate Varla Ramaiah. The minimum votes required to win a Rajya Sabha seat is 36. With this, TDP needs to struggle for extra votes and it looks almost impossible for now.

The voting is being held from 9 AM to 4 PM today. The results would be out in the evening. As TDP issued Whip to all its MLAs, one has to wait and watch whom the rebel MLAs would vote for.