Telangana CM A Revanth Reddy
Credit: PTI Photo
Hyderabad: Three leaders each from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are in the race to become a member of the Rajya Sabha, after the Election Commission released the schedule for the elections on February 27.
With current numbers in the Telangana assembly, the ruling Congress can bag two seats and the opposition BRS one unanimously. But, if Congress fields three candidates or BRS fields more than one candidate, it warrants voting.
If voting is required under the proportional representation method in Telangana a party needs around 31 first preference votes to elect one Rajya Sabha member. If voting is held it will be keenly watched for cross-voting, especially at a time when a few BRS MLAs met Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy whereas BJP and MIM have eight and seven MLAs respectively.
Congress and its ally CPI have 65 MLAs and BRS has 39 MLAs in the current Telangana assembly. To bag the third seat, the Congress needs at least 28 more first preference votes, which means it needs the support of 28 MLAs. For BRS to win an additional seat, it needs the support of 23 more MLAs.
The term of BRS MPs Joginpally Santosh Kumar, Badugula Lingaiah Yadav and Vaddiraju Ravichandra, comes to an end this year creating the vacancies.
In Andhra Pradesh, YSRCP can comfortably win all three seats, but if TDP decides to field a candidate voting would be necessary.
YSRCP already had faced cross-voting in the MLC polls in March last year. At least four YSRCP rebel MLAs had voted for a TDP candidate.
Any cross-voting before the general elections will be an embarrassment for the parties in both the Telugu states.
According to the strength of the Andhra Pradesh assembly, parties need at least 44 first-preference votes to bag each Rajya Sabha seat. Minus four MLAs who switched over to YSRCP, the opposition TDP currently has 19 MLAs. TDP needs the support of at least 25 YSRCP MLAs to win the seat.
TDP’s Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar, YSRCP’s Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy, and BJP’s CM Ramesh will complete their terms and the election will be held to fill these vacancies.
If TDP fails to secure a seat, it will be for the first time since the party’s inception in the 1980s it will not have representation in the upper house of the parliament.