New Delhi: Voting and counting for the Vice Presidential election will take place on Tuesday. In such a situation, Chandrashekhar Rao-led Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) have announced to stay away from voting. Congress has criticized both the regional political parties.
Congress alleged that the abstention of both the parties from voting will indirectly help the NDA. In the Vice Presidential election to be held tomorrow (September 9), NDA candidate C.P. Radhakrishnan is pitted against India Block candidate Justice B. Sudarshan Reddy.
Although the NDA had a numerical edge over the India Block, the opposition party was relying on the ‘voice of conscience’ of a total of 782 MPs of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha participating in the Vice Presidential election.
Out of a total of 782 MPs, till Sunday, the NDA had 426 MPs and the India Block had 339 MPs. Both Odisha-based BJD and Telangana-based BRS had not yet revealed their cards. However, a day before this crucial contest, both the regional parties announced on Monday that they will not participate in the Vice Presidential election.
BRS has no member in Lok Sabha, but it has 4 members in Rajya Sabha. BJD has 7 members in Rajya Sabha but none in Lok Sabha. Meanwhile, Congress managers alleged that the absence of both the regional parties during the Vice Presidential election will reduce the total number of votes and indirectly help the NDA candidate.
BJD Rajya Sabha MP Sasmit Patra announced their decisions after party chief Naveen Patnaik held a meeting with MPs in Delhi and BRS leader KT Rama Rao (KTR), son of former Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR), announced their respective decisions.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Saptagiri Shankar Ulaka told ETV Bharat that both BJD and BRS are in collusion with BJP. He said the decision of BJD and BRS to stay away from voting during the vice-presidential election will indirectly help the NDA candidate as the total number of votes polled will go down.
He said both the parties claim to fight the BJP but their decision will help the NDA candidate with RSS background as against the apolitical and secular candidate of the opposition. He said if BJD and BRS were really serious about taking on the BJP, they should have announced support.
According to the Congress MLA, BJD claims to fight the BJP in Odisha but is indirectly helping the saffron party as it wants to gain some mileage. He said the move of not participating in the vice-presidential election shows BJD’s double standards and will cost the regional party heavily in Odisha.
“There are some factions within the BJD who want to ally with the BJP as there is a leadership crisis in the regional party due to the ill-health of party chief Naveen Patnaik. Hence, a decision has been taken to indirectly help the NDA candidate. But this move will backfire for the BJD in state politics as they claim to be fighting against the ruling BJP there,” Ulaka said.
The BJP came to power in Odisha by defeating the BJD in the 2024 assembly elections. The Congress has since been trying to become the main opposition party as it feels that the BJD is in disarray.
The situation is different in Telangana, where the BRS ruled from 2014 to 2023. The BRS came to power in 2014, soon after the new state was carved out of Andhra Pradesh. The Congress gave a tough fight in the 2023 assembly elections and defeated the BRS. In the past few years, the Congress has alleged that there is collusion between the BRS and the BJP, which has gradually expanded its presence in the southern state.
Soon after India Bloc declared Justice Reddy of Andhra Pradesh as its candidate for the Vice Presidential election, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy had appealed to all Telugu-speaking regional parties, BRS, AIMIM, YSRCP and TDP to support him. TDP and YSRCP have decided to support NDA candidate Radhakrishnan. At the same time, Asaduddin Owaisi’s party AIMIM will support Justice Reddy of India Bloc.
Congress Working Committee special invitee member and former Andhra Pradesh unit president G Rudra Raju told ETV Bharat that BRS has always been in collusion with the BJP. Their decision to stay away from the Vice Presidential election clearly shows what position they are in. He said that instead of supporting former Supreme Court judge and Telugu-speaking Justice Reddy, they will now indirectly help NDA candidate Radhakrishnan, who has been a member of the RSS.
Ahead of the crucial contest on Tuesday, all opposition members held a strategy session and a mock poll in Parliament House on Monday. They were scheduled to meet again in the evening at a dinner hosted by Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, but the event was cancelled due to the recent severe floods in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
