It appears Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is asking his party MLCs who are aspiring for party tickets for MLA seats to resign from the legislative council.
This is to enable Naidu to offer the vacant MLC seats to those who don’t get MLA tickets.
His condition is that if the MLCs want to contest as MLAs, they should sacrifice their MLC seats before they contest as MLAs.
This is to prevent them from clinging to the MLC posts, in the event of losing the assembly elections.
So, when party MLC P Ramasubba Reddy was lobbying for the ticket for contesting the assembly elections for Jammalamadugu seat in Kadapa district, Naidu asked him to resign from the MLC post, so that it can be offered to somebody else.
Ramasubba Reddy had no option but to quit the MLC seat and it was accepted immediately.
On Friday, it was the turn of agriculture minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy to resign from his MLC post.
He submitted his resignation to the assembly speaker in the evening. He is going to contest from Sarvepalli constituency in Nellore district.
Since two MLCs have fallen vacant, Naidu can offer them to other leaders who cannot get the MLA tickets. Since the legislative council elections are due next month, the aspirants can get a good chance to get elected.
So far so good. But one wonders why the same does not apply to Naidu’s son and IT minister Nara Lokesh. He has got into the state cabinet indirectly by getting nominated as MLC under MLAs’ quota.
Now, he is also likely to contest the assembly elections, most likely from Kuppam in place of his father who is likely to move to another safer constituency in Krishna district.
If Lokesh is given the party ticket for the assembly elections, he should also be made to resign from his MLC post like the other two MLCs and his MLC seat can be offered to another TDP candidate.
Will Naidu do that or will he play safe with his son’s MLC seat? Let us wait and see.