YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s close aide and Rajyasabha MP Vijay Sai Reddy bid good-bye to politics all of a sudden, citing personal reasons. The sudden resignation came as a big surprise to political circles and shocked the YSR Congress supporters and its leaders because Vijay Sai Reddy was regarded as the No. 2 in the party with considerable influence on Jagan.
In his media interaction, Sai Reddy openly admitted that his resignation will benefit NDA government in Andhra Pradesh because his Rajyasabha seat, which has another three and a half years tenure, will be clinched by any of the three parties in the coalition. Already, three Rajyasabha MPs from YSRCP resigned from the party after the 2024 election results. Two of them were bagged by TDP with Beeda Mastan Rao and Sana Satish getting nominated to the vacant seats. The third seat was claimed by BJP which re-elected R. Krishnayya again to Rajyasabha.
With Vijay Sai Reddy’s resignation, the NDA coalition will have an opportunity to nominate another loyal representative to the vacant seat. The discussion now is which party will bag the vacant Rajyasabha seat ?
For the three vacant seats in the past, all three parties were supposed to share one each. However, Janasena sacrificed its seat because of political equations and due to the request from its alliance partners. Now, there is another chance for Janasena to claim the vacant Rajyasabha seat.
But, reports suggest that BJP might once again influence the TDP and Janasena to grab the vacant seat. As caste equations play a significant role in Andhra Pradesh, the BJP wants to pitch someone from the same Reddy community to fill the seat vacated by Vijay Sai Reddy. The party high command believes that it should allot the seat to a prominent leader from Rayalaseema region to improve its vote share in the next elections.
Reportedly, former Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy who joined BJP before 2024 elections and contested unsuccessfully from Rajampeta constituency is the forerunner for this post. A call might be taken by the party high command next week.
