BRS in a fix on Vice-President polls

The announcement of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy as the INDIA Bloc candidate for the office of Vice-President of India has apparently left the main opposition Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) in a fix.

The party has all along been maintaining neutral stand on major issues and has refrained from supporting the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre or joined hands with the Congress, its principle opponent in the State. In the last Assembly and the Parliament elections, the BRS fought on its own.

While the party has drawn a blank in the Lok Sabha elections last year, it still has four members in Rajya Sabha. Of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, Congress and BJP won eight and the AIMIM one. In the Rajya Sabha, BRS has four members and Congress three.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy invoking the ‘Telugu pride’ at a press conference on Tuesday evening obviously has pushed the BRS to a corner as regards its support for the Vice-Presidential candidate backed by the NDA and the INDIA Bloc. Mr. Reddy had openly urged Telugu-speaking Parliament members from the TDP, BRS, AIMIM and the YSRCP to back Justice Sudershan Reddy, though the appeal to TDP members appears far fetched as they are part and parcel of the NDA.

“Our leader has thrown a gauntlet at KCR and it is for him to take the call. When he has been speaking about ‘sentiment’ during the height of the Statehood agitation, the issue of backing a Telugu person should also be a sentiment for him,” a top Congress leader remarked.

Sources in the BRS maintained that it is for the party president and former CM K. Chandrashekhar Rao to take a call on the elections. “We have not received any call from either the NDA or the INDIA Bloc to support their nominees,” a top leader told The Hindu.

The BRS leadership is in a spot because if it supports the INDIA Bloc candidate it has a lot to answer. In the event of backing the NDA candidate C.P. Radhakrishnan, the party is likely to face flak for ignoring the ‘Telugu bidda’ sentiment. Either ways, the party is in a piquant situation on how to wriggle out the situation.

There is also speculation that the party might stay away from the voting. But, this would give the INDIA Bloc leadership and more particularly the State Congress to launch a tirade against the BRS alleging strategic understanding with the BJP.

The next move of the BRS chief would be keenly watched as the nomination process for the VP gets in motion.