The Praja Rajyam Party has decided to jump into the Rajya Sabha election fray from Andhra Pradesh despite being awfully short of numbers.
The PRP has just 18 MLAs in the 294-member AP Assembly (of which 12 seats are now vacant) and requires minimum 41 votes to win a Rajya Sabha seat.
“We have our own strategy and we hope to muster requisite support (to win a seat),” PRP chief and MLA K. Chiranjeevi told mediapersons at the party headquarters here on Thursday, on his return from a 15-day tour of coastal Andhra region.
On how the PRP expect to get support, Mr. Chiranjeevi said, “Certain things are not publicly revealed and we have to play the cards close to our chest.” Chiranjeevi remarked.
He, however, remained evasive when asked if the PRP would get Congress’s support as part of an understanding between them for the ensuing elections to the urban local bodies in the State.
Biennial elections for six Rajya Sabha seats from Andhra Pradesh are slated for June 14. The ruling Congress is comfortably placed to win four and the principal opposition TDP will get two as per their strength in the Assembly.
While the TDP will not support the PRP, the two Left parties, which have five members, are expected to support the former. The seven-member Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen is expected to support the Congress while BJP and Lok Satta Party, with one MLA each, are expected to remain neutral.
