If the reports coming from New Delhi are to be believed, the Bharatiya Janata Party national leadership is considering the name of popular Dalit leader and founder of Madiga Reservation Porata Samith (MRPS) Manda Krishna Madiga as the party candidate for Rajya Sabha in the upcoming by-election.
According to these reports, the name of Manda Krishna Madiga came up for discussion during the meeting of Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu with Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Tuesday afternoon.
At the meeting, Naidu accepted the request of Shah to leave the Rajya Sabha seat, vacated by former YSRCP leader V Vijay Sai Reddy, to the BJP.
The Union home minister reportedly conveyed to Naidu that the party is planning to field ex-BJP president of Tamil Nadu K Annamalai or former Union minister Smriti Irani for the seat.
However, Naidu reportedly came up with a suggestion that it would be better to field Manda Krishna Madiga in the by-election for the RS seat, as it would fetch tremendous mileage to the NDA in Andhra Pradesh in the wake of the latest decision to sub-categorise the Scheduled Castes as per Supreme Court order.
Krishna Madiga is not only close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi but also has a tremendous clout among the Dalits in the Telugu states.
Interestingly, BJP Telangana unit president G Kishan Reddy, who was also present in the Naidu-Shah meeting, supported Naidu’s suggestion, as giving RS seat to Manda Krishna Madiga would get a huge mileage to the BJP in Telangana as well.
Apparently, Manda Krishna Madiga also met Shah and thanked him for implementing SC categorization in both Telugu states. Krishna Madiga also met Chandrababu at his official residence later to express gratitude.
Amid these developments, speculation is swirling that the BJP may nominate Manda Krishna Madiga for the Rajya Sabha seat, though no confirmations have been issued yet.
The Election Commission issued the notification for the by-election to the RS seat from Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday.
The last day for the filing of nominations is April 29. The nominations will be scrutinised on April 30 and the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is May 2.
Election for the vacant seat, if necessary, will be held from 9 am. to 4 pm on May 9 and the votes will be counted the same day at 5 pm.
However, since the YSR Congress party, the lone opposition party, doesn’t have enough number of MLAs to contest, there may not be any need to conduct the polling and the BJP candidate will be declared unopposed, the TDP leader quoted above said.