The Central Election Commission has released the schedule for the by-election to the vacant Rajya Sabha seat in AP. The seat fell vacant with the resignation of YSRCP MP Vijayasai Reddy. Nominations will be accepted until the 29th of this month. The scrutiny of nominations will be conducted on the 30th.
The deadline for withdrawal of nominations has been given until May 2. The election will be held on May 9. The counting of votes will be conducted from 5 pm on the same day. With the numerical strength in the state assembly, the coalition parties can unanimously win this seat.
In fact, Jana Sena chief and Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan was intended to field his brother K Naga Babu from this seat. However, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu persuaded him to contest as MLC with a promise to include him in the state cabinet on the plea that the BJP is claiming this seat.
Though BJP is having only 8 MLAs in the seat, already one seat was given earlier to this party and BC leader R Krishnaiah elected as BJP candidate, though he has been keeping away from BJP activities. Now, it is interesting to see whether TDP fields its own candidate or bow down to the pressures of the BJP.
With the YSRCP losing power in the AP Assembly elections, many key leaders have resigned not only from their posts but also from the party membership. In this context, Vijayasai Reddy, the party’s national general secretary and Rajya Sabha member, announced that he is quitting politics on January 25.
Moreover, he made it clear that he will not join any political party in the future. He revealed that he is resigning for purely personal reasons and that he will take up farming in the future. Vijayasai Reddy worked as a No 2 in the YSRCP till YS Jaganmohan Reddy was sworn in as the Chief Minister along with winning the 2019 party elections.
However, after Jagan took power, Vijayasai Reddy’s role gradually disappeared and he became restless after being given non-priority posts. Meantime, after the YSRCP was confined to only 11 seats, he resigned from the party along with his MP post.