Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday hinted to the party MPs that the Rajya Sabha seat vacancy in Andhra Pradesh (Seemandhra) arising out of the recent death of N. Janardhana Reddy of the Congress will be given to party’s ally Bharatiya Janata Party.
Mr. Naidu was understood to have disclosed this to the newly-elected Lok Sabha members, who along with the party’s Rajya Sabha members met here to elect the parliamentary party leader and floor leaders for both Houses. They, however, authorised Mr. Naidu to make these appointments. The party chief is stated to have told the MPs that there was a request from the BJP’s national leadership to allot the vacant Rajya Sabha seat and the party (TDP) had to oblige it since it was part of the NDA, sources said.
TDP leaders said that it was likely to be given to Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry (independent charge), who hails from AP. She is not a member of either of the Houses in Parliament now. Mr. Naidu is believed to have directed the MPs to prepare plans for comprehensive development of their constituencies and pursue allocation of funds from the Centre on priority basis. The meeting also dwelt on issues such as developing the TDP as a national party, the party’s performance in the recent elections, supporting the Centre in its efforts to bring back black money, measures to check the price rise of essential commodities, power deficit and getting funds from the Centre for pending projects. Mr. Naidu further suggested to the MPs to coordinate with the NDA government and work for getting the funds for reconstruction of AP on priority basis.
Later, party MPs Rayapati Sambasiva Rao (Narasaraopet), K . Ramamohan Naidu (Srikakulam), Kesineni Nani (Vijayawada) and others stated that the meeting did not discuss any important issue as most of the MPs were either new to politics or new to the party (having joined from other parties). They were acquainted with the party’s functioning in Parliament.
