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YSRC bags all 4 Rajya Sabha seats from Andhra; TDP nominee loses 6 party votes
The four YSRC candidates – Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy, Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose, Mopidevi Venkata Ramana and Parimal Nathwani were declared elected as they polled the number of votes required for their election.
The ruling YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh won all the four Rajya Sabha seats from the state, elections for which were held on Friday.
The four YSRC candidates – Alla Ayodhya Rami Reddy, Pilli Subhash Chandra Bose, Mopidevi Venkata Ramana and Parimal Nathwani were declared elected as they polled the number of votes required for their election.
Ayodhya Rami Reddy and Parimal Nathwani are industrialists – the former heading the Ramky Group of Industries while the latter is senior group vice-president of Reliance Industries.
The remaining two were, hitherto, members of the legislative council and are part of the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy cabinet. While Subhash Chandra Bose is a deputy chief minister holding the revenue portfolio, Venkata Ramana is the state excise minister.
All the four YSRC candidates would have been elected unanimously because the party has enough strength in the assembly – 151 out of 175 MLAs, but the election was necessitated with the Telugu Desam Party fielding its candidate – Varla Ramaiah despite the fact that it has only 23 MLAs in the assembly technically, including three rebels, and requires another 17 votes to win the seat.
TDP president and leader of the opposition N Chandrababu Naidu said the party knew it won’t win the Rajya Sabha seat, but had chosen to contest only in the spirit of democracy.
At the same time, the TDP was also hoping to expose three rebel MLAs –Vallabhaneni Vamsi from Gannavaram, Karanam Balarama Krishna Murthy from Chirala and Maddali Giridhar from Guntur (West) constituencies, if they voted for the YSRC. The party issued a whip to all the MLAs.
However, the TDP candidate ended up getting only 17 votes, as four votes of the party were declared invalid. The three rebel MLAs ensured that their votes become invalid so that they could avoid being disqualified.
Another TDP MLA Adireddy Bhavani from Rajahmundry also messed up in marking her first preferential vote in favour of party candidate Varla Ramaiah, as a result of which her vote also was declared invalid.
Two other TDP legislators also could not cast their votes. While Tekkali MLA K Atchen Naidu could not exercise his franchise as he is in judicial custody in connection with the Employees State Insurance Scam, another MLA Anagani Satyaprasad from Repalle excused himself stating that he was in self-quarantine at home as he had come in contact with Telangana MLA M Yadagiri Reddy who had tested Covid-19 positive.
