HYDERABAD: In an interesting development, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), sworn enemies of the BJP, abstained from voting in the Rajya Sabha on the triple talaq bill on Tuesday, thus helping the NDA steamroll its way in passing it. Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu announced the passage of the bill with a division of 99 votes in favour and 84 votes against the bill.
This is the second time that the TRS, with its six members, and the TDP, with its two members, went in support of the NDA in helping it pass controversial bills in the Rajya Sabha, where the NDA does not have a majority. Recently, they helped the NDA pass the amendment to the RTI Act.The two parties’ change of line has come as a surprise, since, by helping the BJP pass the triple talaq bill, they were, in fact, sending out a message that the BJP was not an adversary to them anymore.
By abstaining from voting, the TRS and TDP brought down the effective strength of the members in the House by eight. Added to this, one of the two members of the YSRC, V Prabhakar Reddy, helped the NDA by not attending the session though YSRC was against the bill and its leader V Vijaya Sai Reddy voted against it.
The TRS’ act fuelled speculation that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was moving closer to the saffron party despite his public posturing against it.In fact, when the TRS and TDP supported the amendments to the RTI bill in the Rajya Sabha recently, it came as a surprise because everyone was under the impression that both parties would tear the BJP to pieces.
TRS parliamentary party leader K Keshava Rao went to the Rajya Sabha to blast the NDA on amendments to the RTI Act. But, taking everyone by surprise, he did a somersault by supporting the bill.