BRS and BJD Skip Vice Presidential Poll, Dimming NDA’s Prospects

Former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and former Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal (BJD) declared on Monday that they would not participate in the crucial election on Tuesday for vice president.

According to The Hindustan Times, even if the two parties' decision to back the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on important legislation in Parliament may not affect the poll results, it will probably hurt the NDA's chances of winning by a wider margin.

"The Biju Janata Dal has chosen not to participate in tomorrow's vice presidential elections.  The NDA and INDIA alliances are still equally distant from the Biju Janata Dal.  On Monday, BJD Rajya Sabha MP Sasmit Patra stated, "We are focused on the development and welfare of Odisha and the 4.5 crore people of Odisha."

There are no BJD MPs in the Lok Sabha and seven in the Rajya Sabha.

BRS leader KT Rama Rao declared in the evening that the party will not run in the poll because it is neither "subservient" to the Congress nor the BJP.  "We are not part of the INDIA bloc or the NDA.  BRS is an entirely separate entity.  In Delhi, we don't have any bosses.  Our only bosses are the people of Telangana," KTR declared.

The working president of the BRS had previously declared that he would back the party that could provide Telangana farmers with a significant amount of urea.  In the Rajya Sabha, the BRS has four MPs, but not in the Lok Sabha.

Both the INDIA bloc and the NDA had contacted BRS for assistance, according to officials.

The BRS (formerly Telangana Rashtra Samithi) had supported opposition candidate Margaret Alva in the 2022 vice presidential election.

Since Patnaik's party had backed the ruling alliance on a number of important issues over the previous 11 years, the BJD's decision to skip the VP poll was a greater shock to the NDA.

The BJD political affairs committee met last week and, according to staffers, encouraged Patnaik to avoid siding with the BJP because doing so would make the party's fight against the BJP, which is also in power in Odisha, weaker.

In order to pressure the former Odisha chief minister, a senior Congress politician said that the party has "activated" former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, who is acquainted with Patnaik from their time at Doon School.  Nath was also in the nation's capital over the weekend, while Patnaik was in Delhi.

The BJD did not participate in the 2012 VP election, which was won by Hamid Ansari.  In the 2017 election, it supported Gopalkrishna Gandhi, a non-NDA candidate, who lost to Venkaiah Naidu.  It backed Jagdeep Dhankhar, an NDA candidate, in 2022.