BRS to abstain from Vice Presidential election voting

BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao has directed the party’s Rajya Sabha MPs to abstain from voting in the Vice Presidential election. KT Rama Rao said the decision was linked to farmers’ issues, accusing both BJP and Congress of neglecting Telangana farmers

Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has decided to abstain from voting in the Vice Presidential election scheduled for Tuesday. BRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao took the decision after discussions with party leaders and directed the party’s Rajya Sabha MPs accordingly.

The Vice Presidential election was necessitated by the resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar.

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Speaking to the media, BRS working president KT Rama Rao confirmed the decision. He said that though both contesting candidates, NDA nominee and Maharashtra Governor CP Radhakrishnan and INDIA bloc’s Justice Sudarshan Reddy, were good people, the BRS had chosen to highlight the concerns of Telangana farmers who, he alleged, were being ignored by both the BJP and Congress governments.

“If NOTA were available, we would have chosen it. Since it is not, we are abstaining from voting,” he said.

Linking the decision to the ongoing urea shortage, KT Rama Rao accused both the BJP-led Centre and the Congress-ruled State of failing to address the problems of farmers in Telangana.