BRS yet to make its stand clear on V-P poll

Hyderabad: Even as hardly one day is left for the election of new Vice-President of India, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) is yet to clear its stand on supporting any of the candidates. However, it is more likely that the party will send a message that it is not part of any of the alliances led by the two national parties.

According to sources, the party may take a decision to abstain from voting without supporting any candidate.

It may be mentioned here that almost all Opposition political parties have come to a conclusion on supporting the candidate for the Vice-Presidential polls. The party leaders have tried to maintain that it is party president K Chandrashekar Rao who will decide on such issues. However, recently, while talking to reporters, BRS working president KT Rama Rao has put forward a condition that the party which assures 2 lakh metric tonnes of urea would get the support of the BRS in the V-P poll.

While the BJP has fielded CP Radhakrishnan, the Congress-led INDI Alliance has nominated Justice B Sudarshan Reddy, a retired Supreme Court judge. The AIMIM is slated to support the INDI Alliance candidate.

During the previous election of Vice-President, BRS (then TRS) had pledged support to Margaret Alva of the Congress as the common candidate of the Opposition against Jagdeep Dhankhar. The party had once supported the candidature of M Venkaiah Naidu from the NDA. Even this time, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy had sought the support of all MPs stating that a Telugu person was being projected for the Vice-President’s post.

The BRS has four votes in the Rajya Sabha and these are crucial numbers for electing the next Vice-President. However, this time the party does not want to align with any party. KTR had, however, rejected the ‘Telugu person’ sentiment and questioned ‘hypocrisy of Congress’ on social justice, pointing out that despite claiming affection for the BCs, the party had not nominated a BC leader for the Vice-President’s post.