TRS may play spoilsport for BJP, Congress

​Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti is likely to play a crucial role in the election of Deputy Chairman to Rajya Sabha since the incumbent P J Kurien will retire on June 30. If the smaller and regional parties come together, as advocated by the TRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao, they can have a non-Congress and non-BJP MP as the Deputy Chairman.

The strength of the TRS has increased to six in the Rajya Sabha (with the election of three TRS leaders J Santosh, B Prakash and B Lingaiah Yadav), which makes fifth in terms of number of MPs, while BJP tops with 69 seats followed by Congress with 51 seats. 

There is a total of 245 seats in Rajya Sabha and to get the halfway mark of 122 seats, the national parties like BJP and Congress would have to bank on regional parties to get the post of Deputy Chairman. 
On the other hand, if all regional parties including the independents unite, they can stake claim over the post. If the seats of Congress and BJP are taken out, there would be 125 members in the House and the regional parties would be playing the key role. 

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has been pitching for the Federal Front devoid of Congress and BJP and has been meeting several regional party leaders in the country. The Trinamool Congress and Samajwadi Party have 13 seats each. There are several parties which have three to five seats including the DMK, RJD, TDP, CPM, BSP and others. 

During the election of President, the TRS had supported the NDA candidate, which ensured the victory of Ram Nath Kovind. However, the political situation has changed since then and the TRS chief has now taken the responsibility of bringing a qualitative change in the politics with a Front devoid of Congress and BJP.   

In this regard, the Chief Minister is expected to meet Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and other leaders during the second half of May after Karnataka election results are declared. Party sources said that the Deputy Chairman’s post may also to come up for discussion.  A senior leader said that the party would first discuss and later on take a stand on the issue. 

Political analysts said that the TRS may have nothing to get, but it can hamper the chances of Congress because it has advantage since most of the parties are its alliance partners during the UPA regime. If the regional parties toe the line of KCR, it would be a loss to Congress, he said.  

The party-wise strength in Rajya Sabha include- BJP (69), Congress (51), AIADMK, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi (13 each), BJD (9), TRS, JDU, TDP and independent (6 each), RJD and CPM (5 each), DMK, BSP, NCP (4 each), AAP, Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal (3 each), YSRCP and PDP (2). There are nine other parties which have one member each.