Hyderabad, March 10: The Indian National Congress on Tuesday secured two Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana unopposed after the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chose not to field candidates or issue a whip to its MLAs.
Congress candidates Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Vem Narender Reddy were declared elected after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended, with no valid opposition candidates remaining in the fray.
The election became uncontested after the only other nomination filed by an independent candidate was rejected during scrutiny for failing to secure the mandatory support of at least 10 MLAs.
Interestingly, the Congress did not have the numbers to win two seats on its own in the 119-member Assembly. The party currently holds 66 seats, while the BRS has 37, the Bharatiya Janata Party eight, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen seven and the Communist Party of India one. Each Rajya Sabha seat requires 41 votes for victory.
Political observers said the BRS decided not to contest the polls due to uncertainty over support from its own MLAs and the refusal of AIMIM to back the party. The regional party is also engaged in a legal battle in the Supreme Court over the defection of 10 MLAs who switched allegiance to the Congress.
Senior political commentator Telakapalli Ravi said the opposition party may have avoided the contest due to lack of assured numbers.
“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.
Sources said the BRS also chose not to issue a whip to its MLAs as it wanted to signal that those who defected to the Congress were no longer aligned with the party.
Singhvi, a senior Supreme Court advocate, was renominated by the Congress after completing a short tenure in the Upper House. He had earlier filled the vacancy created after former BRS MP K Keshava Rao joined the Congress following the formation of the government led by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy.
Narender Reddy, a close aide of the chief minister, has been serving as an advisor to the state government since the Congress came to power in December 2023. Both leaders had earlier been associated with the Telugu Desam Party before joining the Congress.
The nominations of Singhvi and Narender Reddy were filed on March 5 in the presence of the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues.
