BRS, BJD to abstain

New Delhi: With just a day left for the Vice-Presidential election, two fence-sitters- K Chandrasekhar Rao-led Bharatiya Rashtra Samiti (BRS) and Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) have announced to abstain from voting in the high-stakes polls.

Both parties have asserted that they remain “equidistant" from both the NDA and the INDIA bloc. BRS working president K T Rama Rao said the decision to skip the Vice-Presidential election is an expression of “anguish" of Telangana’s farmers over the shortage of urea in the state.

He accused both the BJP and the Congress of failing to address the shortage issue. He said that the shortage is such that scuffles are taking place among farmers while waiting in queues for urea. Additionally, BJD leader Sasmit Patra said that his party’s priority is the “four-and-a-half crore people of Odisha". “Following discussions by our party president Naveen Patnaik with party’s senior leaders, Political Affairs Committee and MPs, the Biju Janata Dal has decided to abstain from the Vice-Presidential elections," Patra said.