VIJAYAWADA: YSRC Rajya Sabha member V Vijaya Sai Reddy has requested the Election Commission of India to conduct Rajya Sabha elections in the common capital Hyderabad and provide Central Reserve Police Force security to YSRC MLAs in view of possibility of “horse-trading”.Reddy on Friday met Chief Election Commission OP Rawat and submitted a memorandum urging him to ensure fair Rajya Sabha elections.
Three Rajya Sabha seats from AP are going to fall vacant on April 2 as the tenure of K Chiranjeevi and Renuka Chowdary of the Congress and T Devender Goud of the TDP is going to end on the day. Out of the three vacancies, going by the number of party MLAs, the Telugu Desam Party will win two seats while the YSRC one seat. However, the YSRC fears that the TDP will try to influence some of its MLAs to vote for the ruling party’s candidate to corner all the three seats. Vijaya Sai Reddy explained to the ECI that the TDP had bought 23 out of its 63 MLAs till date, paying `10 crore to `20 crore each.
At present, the YSRC has 44 MLAs with it without the defected MLAs. The YSRC leader complained that the TDP is making efforts to buy another four MLAs by offering a large amount of money. He wanted the ECI to conduct the election by deputing an observer from New Delhi. He complained that the ruling TDP is resorting to illegal means and reminded that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is an accused in the note for vote scam in Telangana.
He expressed fears that similar effort might be made by TDP in the Rajya Sabha polls. According to him, the Chief Election Commissioner responded positively and spoke with a legal advisor with regard to the YSRC request. He assured that arrangements will be made as per rules, send a Central observer and monitor the process real time. The YSRC leader also accused certain IAS and IPS officers of working for the TDP.