Congress rebels file nominations for Rajya Sabha

Elections to be held for six seats from Andhra Pradesh

Eight candidates, including two rebels from the ruling Congress, filed nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections from Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday. Since the elections are being held for six seats, the presence of two extra candidates in the fray would make voting imminent.

The Congress renominated the candidature of three sitting MPs namely, MK Khan, KVP Ramachandra Rao and T Subbarami Reddy, while the Opposition TDP fielded two fresh faces G Rammohan Rao and Sitarama Laxmi based on the party’s winning strength in the Assembly.

The TRS, which has only 23 members in the Assembly as against the required voting strength of 40 MLAs for winning the seat, has fielded K Keshava Rao counting on the support of other political parties, including the Congress. While Majlis (MIM), CPI and BJP having a total strength of over a dozen MLAs have already pledged their support to the TRS candidate, the Congress leadership has understandably decided to make spare votes available to Rao.

The two Congress rebels —Chaitanya Raju, a member of legislative council, and Adala Prabhakar Reddy, an MLA,  filed their nominations as independent candidates. Interestingly, senior Congress MLA J C Divakar Reddy, who had earlier said he would also fight the RS elections, however, declared his support to Raju.

A much bigger headache was expected for the Congress party in these elections as the command control system is in disarray due to the polarisation of members along the regional lines. However, the rebels who are from Seemandhra do not seem to pose a  threat to the winning prospects of the Congress’ official nominees.  This is because KVP and Subbarami Reddy, both from Seemandhra, enjoy considerable clout among the MLAs from that region while Khan hails from Telangana where the party has 50 MLAs.

Besides, efforts are also under way to persuade the rebels to withdraw from the fray, party insiders said.

The TDP too is facing dissidence from its senior member M Narsimhulu, who is upset with the leadership for declining Rajya Sabha nomination. Party managers are trying to persuade him from taking drastic steps as he had hinted at quitting the party.

CM again wants more time to debate Bill
Even as Assembly speaker N Manohar started consultations on steps to be followed in response to chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy’s notice seeking to move a  resolution to reject the AP Reorganisation Bill, 2013, the latter wrote yet another letter to President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday asking for three more weeks to discuss the Bill.

The President had earlier extended the time by one week to January 30 following a request from the chief minister who sought an extra 4 weeks to debate the Bill in addition to the six weeks given earlier.

The Speaker was unable to run the House since yesterday due to the protests being staged by the Telangana members against the chief minister's move. The Speaker held the business advisory committee (BAC) meeting on Tuesday on the steps taken in response to the chief minister’s notice.

With only two days left to complete the process of debate, the Speaker’s decision on the debate as well as the chief minister’s notice becomes crucial. Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde  had earlier stated the Bill would be placed before Parliament in the ensuing session next month.