Boost to NDA candidate Radhakrishnan as BJD, BRS decide to abstain from VP polls

The Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and Telangana's Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) have decided to stay away from the Vice Presidential election on September 9, consequently boosting the prospects of NDA candidate C P Radhakrishnan against INDIA alliances Justice (retired) P Sudershan Reddy. BRS Working President K T Rama Rao on Monday said his party would abstain from the polls as an expression of anguish felt by Telangana's farmers due to the shortage of urea in the state. He alleged that both the Congress and BJP have failed to address the issue, which has led to scuffles among farmers waiting in queues. We are abstaining. We are not going to participate, Rama Rao told reporters. BRS has four MPs in the Rajya Sabha and none in Lok Sabha. BJD said the the decision to abstain from the polls was part of its policy of maintaining an equal distance from both the BJP-led NDA and Congress-led INDIA bloc at the national level. BJD president Naveen Patnaik has decided that the party's MPs will abstain from voting in the vice presidential elections. He took the decision after consulting senior party leaders, members of the political affairs committee (PAC) and lawmakers, BJD MP Sasmit Patra was quoted as saying by PTI . Patra said that the BJD maintains an equal distance from both the NDA and the INDIA bloc. Our entire focus is on the development of the state and its 4.5 crore people, Patra said. However, Congress said the decision would indirectly help the NDA candidate. We hope Naveen Babu will reconsider his party's decision. The INDIA bloc candidate, B Sudershan Reddy, is not a Congress leader. He is an eminent jurist who is being supported by the grand old party and others. If BJD MPs vote for him, that will not impact the regional party's policy of maintaining equidistance. There is still time to reconsider, said Saptagiri Ulaka, the lone Congress MP from Odisha. Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Bhakta Charan Das said, Abstaining from voting means supporting the BJP... this was an opportunity for the BJD to prove that it is opposed to the saffron camp. Das said BJD, through its decision to abstain from voting, extends acit support to the BJP-led NDA's candidate, C P Radhakrishnan. With this decision, Naveen Patnaik has once again proved that BJD and BJP are one. We have been saying that Congress, and not BJD, is the real opposition in Odisha, he said. BJD MPs in 2012 had also abstained from voting in the vice presidential elections. BJD has seven MPs in the Rajya Sabha and none in Lok Sabha. The MPs of both Houses have the voting rights in the vice president elections. NDA has 293 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 129 members in the Rajya Sabha and commands a clear majority. The vice presidential elections are being held after the resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar from the post on July 21.