Not keen on issuing whip to defectors, Bharat Rashtra Samithi stays away from Rajya Sabha poll

Hyderabad: A technical issue in issuing a whip to BRS MLAs, who allegedly switched loyalties to Congress, stopped BRS from contesting the two Rajya Sabha seats from Telangana. The last date for filing nominations for the Rajya Sabha seats ended on Thursday and BRS stayed away from the contest.BRS sources said the pink party had won 39 seats in the 2023 assembly elections. Of them, the party had lost two seats in by-elections, which reduced the total number of MLAs to 37. Of them, 10 MLAs allegedly defected to Congress, and the party has been seeking their disqualification. Without the defectors, the party's number would be just 27.
The assembly speaker has delivered his decision on some petitions, and two more were pending with the speaker. The party is also planning to go to court once the speaker delivers his decision on the petitions against the remaining MLAs, Kadiyam Srihari and Danam Nagender."The party does not want to issue a whip to the defected MLAs by contesting the Rajya Sabha elections at a time BRS is arguing they defected to the ruling Congress. The whip is issued to only party MLAs, which means BRS is indirectly admitting that the defected MLAs are still its party members," a senior BRS leader said.In the Rajya Sabha elections, the party needs 40 MLAs and could put the defected MLAs at risk of violating the whip. But in that process, BRS would be contradicting its own argument before the speaker and courts.Initially, the party wanted to contest the Rajya Sabha polls and considered a couple of names. Later, BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao reportedly discussed the issue with party senior leaders and legal experts and decided to stay away from the Rajya Sabha election. "The party may lose a Rajya Sabha member now. But the target is to get all the 10 MLAs disqualified," the senior leader said. Of the 10 BRS MLAs who were facing the defection allegations, Patancheru legislator Gudem Mahipal Reddy announced that he would support BRS in the elections.