20 BRS MLAs to join Congress before Rajya Sabha Polls

February 08, 2024 14:50

20 BRS MLAs to join Congress before Rajya Sabha Polls:- The Congress party has made a decision to nominate three candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. These seats are becoming vacant on April 2 due to the retirement of BRS MPs. Sources have revealed that the ruling party has secured the support of 20 BRS MLAs. This move aims to heavily impact the pink party and achieve a complete victory in the polls. The Election Commission of India (ECI) will officially announce the election details on Thursday. The voting will take place on February 27 to fill the seats left by Joginapally Santosh Kumar, Badugula Lingaiah Yadav, and Vaddiraju Ravichandra, who are all BRS members.

Important dates for the election process include the last day for filing nominations on February 15, scrutiny of nominations on February 16, withdrawal of nominations until February 20, and finally, the polling and vote counting on February 27. Currently, all seven Rajya Sabha seats are held by BRS members. However, the Congress party is determined to reduce their representation in the near future. In order to win a Rajya Sabha seat, only MLAs are eligible to vote. The winning threshold is determined by the formula: Total number of MLAs divided by (number of Rajya Sabha seats plus one) plus one. For this particular election, the calculation would be 119 divided by (3 plus 1) plus 1. The number will be rounded up to 31.

Although the Congress has enough support to secure two seats, thanks to their 65 MLAs, including one from the friendly CPI, the BRS also has enough support to keep one seat, with their 39 MLAs. However, the Congress is aiming to field candidates for all three seats, hoping for some cross-voting from the BRS. There are reports that the Congress is in contact with a few BRS MLAs, and there is speculation that 20 of the 39 BRS MLAs are willing to vote for the Congress' third candidate.

During a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, PCC working president and former MLA T. Jagga Reddy stated that 20 BRS MLAs are prepared to join the Congress at any time. The ballot paper for the Rajya Sabha elections will list all the candidates, and MLAs must indicate their first, second, and third preferences. The winners will be determined by the preferential votes. To prevent cross-voting, the Rajya Sabha polls are considered "semi-open," meaning that each MLA must show their marked ballot to the party's authorized agent in the polling booth before placing it in the ballot box.