VIJAYAWADA: In a surprise move, the YSRC, whose MP V Vijayasai Reddy earlier announced his party would vote for any non-NDA candidate in the election to the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman’s post, abstained from voting held on Thursday.
Contrary to its earlier stand that the party would support the candidate fielded by opposition parties, the YSRC changed the stand just before the election on the ground that the Congress decided to field its own candidate, going back on its earlier promise of giving the opportunity to one of its allies.
“Had the Congress given the opportunity to its allies like NCP, SP or BSP, we would have supported the Opposition candidate,’’ said Vijaysai Reddy.
“The Congress has all along maintained that the seat would be given to one of its allies and shifted its stand by deciding to filed its own candidate. We are opposing the Congress as it has failed to incorporate the special status and other issues in the State Reorganisation Bill which has put the clock of development of Andhra Pradesh backwards by many years,’’ he said. “Our position was like being between the devil and the deep sea as the contest was between the Congress and the BJP candidates. Had Congress given the opportunity to one of its allies, we would have supported the Opposition but with Congress taking the decision of jumping into the fray, we decided to abstain from voting,” he said.
Sources said the YSRC took the last-minute decision to keep away from voting to send a message that it maintained equidistance from the BJP and the Congress.
YSRC’s change in stand, however, gave the TDP enough ammo to fire salvos against YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s party. Notwithstanding the fact that the two votes of YSRC MPs would not have made much impact on the outcome of the result, TDP leaders wondered ‘how can the YSRC, which participated in the voting held for electing PAC Member recently, defend its act of boycotting the Deputy Chairman election?’
While TDP leaders said that the nexus between the saffron party and YSRC was exposed, Congress leaders said that the YSRC more or less was acting as an affiliated body of the BJP.
Speaking to TNIE, Congress senior leader N Tulasi Reddy observed that if the NDA candidate stood on the verge of defeat and needed one or two votes, the YSRC MPs would definitely have voted for the NDA candidate. But, as the BJP candidate had majority support, the YSRC played the boycott drama, he said.
Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu alleged that the YSRC abstained from the election to ensure victory of the BJP candidate and helped the NDA by reducing magicmark with their absence.