The ruling YSR Congress on Thursday announced its Rajya Sabha candidates. The Rajya Sabha elections are scheduled to take place on February 27.
The state would have three seats falling vacant from the Upper House. TDP member Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar, BJP member C M Ramesh and the YSR Congress member Vemireddy Prabhakar Reddy are retiring on April 2, 2024.
Elections are being held to fill these three vacancies. Given the strength of the parties in the Assembly, the ruling YSR Congress is all set to win all the three seats. This victory would take the party to all 11 members in Rajya Sabha from the state. This election would also make the YSR Congress the fourth largest party in the Upper House.
The YSR Congress would be having the fourth largest number in Rajya Sabha after the BJP, Congress and the Trinamool Congress. This is for the first time that the opposition TDP would have no presence in the Upper House after it was formed in 1982.
Meanwhile, the opposition TDP is also planning to field its candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections. With just 23 members on its side, the TDP wants to have its candidate for the elections. The party fielded its candidate in the March 2020 elections to the Rajya Sabha. Its politburo member, Varla Ramaiah, was the TDP candidate in the Rajya Sabha elections. This time too, Ramaiah is likely to be the party candidate, sources said.
The TDP is also banking on the votes of the dissident MLAs in the ruling party who were denied the party ticket by the YSR Congress. Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had kept some sitting MLAs aside for the next elections.
The TDP is banking on their votes in the election. It is to be seen how many of these dissident MLAs would vote for the TDP candidate.
