The Congress won two Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana unopposed, thanks to the lack of fight from the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi. Party candidates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Vem Narender Reddy won as there was no opposition to their candidature. The situation was unexpected as Congress doesn’t have the numbers to win two seats in the state. However, the ruling party secured the desired results due to BRS's refusal to issue a whip for Upper House elections.
Going by numbers, the Congress can win only one seat. Out of 119 seats in the Telangana Assembly, the Congress has 66 seats, the BRS has 37, the BJP has 8, the AIMIM has 7, and the CPI has won one seat. Each RS seat requires 41 votes. As per reports, the BRS did not want to contest for two reasons: it knows that it doesn’t have the support of all its MLAs, and the AIMIM’s refusal to support the party. The result was decided much before the last date for nomination withdrawals, i.e., March 9.
The BRS has been fighting the defection case in the Supreme Court tooth and nail. Though the party had encouraged political defections when it was in power, it suddenly began opposing them when Congress began poaching.
The Congress is currently planning to move the Supreme Court once the Speaker decides on the complaints against all 10 defecting MLAs. Despite this ongoing legal battle, the BRS did not issue a whip to its MLAs. Such an order would have exposed the “turncoats” and helped its ongoing case.
Telakapalli Ravi, a senior political commentator, told THE WEEK that the party did not issue a whip due to three reasons. “The party did not have the full number to win a seat. It could not secure the support of AIMIM, and the party seems to have sensed that getting the MLAs disqualified and going to elections may not get the expected results,” he said.
It was clear that the party lacked the appetite for a fight and did not take these elections as a challenge, he added.
This is not the first time the opposition has abstained from the elections. The party has skipped a few Legislative Council elections too. THE WEEK’s efforts to get a response from BRS sources went unanswered.
However, the party's working president, K.T. Rama Rao, had earlier explained these setbacks as the part and parcel of being in opposition. A BRS leader said the party doesn’t want to issue a whip to the defected members as it wants to show that they are not with the party anymore.