Gautam Adani says not in Rajya Sabha race, turf open in Andhra Pradesh

The race for Rajya Sabha seats in the biennial election in Andhra Pradesh slated for June 10 took an interesting turn on Sunday with the Adani group debunking reports that either Gautam Adani or his wife Priti would be given a seatFor several months there has been speculation among political circles here that Priti Adani was most likely to be given one of the four Rajya Sabha seats on behalf of the ruling YSR CongressThe Adani group has been executing various projects in the State and Gautam Adani had personal interaction with YSRC president and Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on a few recent occasions triggering the speculationThe group however issued a statement on Sunday saying such reports were blatantly falseIt is unfortunate to see vested interests dragging our name into such speculative media reports Neither Gautam Adani or Priti Adani nor any member of the Adani family has interest in a political career or in joining any political group the statement saidInterestingly the Adani statement gave rise to fresh talk about a new prospective candidate another industrialist Chalamalasetti Sunil who joined the YSRC after unsuccessfully contesting the Kakinada Lok Sabha seat as TDP nominee in 2019Sunils Greenko Energy is executing an integrated renewable energy storage project in Kurnool district touted to be the firstofitskind in the worldIncidentally Jagan will be visiting the project on May 17Given the caste calculations the choice may fall on Sunil now that Adani is no longer in the race YSRC sources notedRumour mills had the name of another big businessman from Telangana in circulation as he is close to Jagan but his name also did the rounds as a prospective candidate of BJP from another StateIf these two business bigwigs are not considered there is a long list of aspirants within the YSRC for a Rajya Sabha seatWith a strength of 151 MLAs of its own and supported by four rebels of opposition TDP and Jana Sena the YSRC will comfortably win all four Rajya Sabha seats that fall vacant in June a gain of threeYSRC Parliamentary Party leader V Vijayasai Reddy one of the four due to retire is set be renominatedFor two other seats the names of Killi Kriparani former Union Minister of State and Beeda Mastan Rao are said to be under consideration Both belong to the backward classes with Kriparani having the added advantage of being a womanThe YSRC has so far not nominated a woman for Rajya Sabha and the gender has currently no representation from the State in the Upper House of Parliament So Kriparani should be a natural choice a senior YSRC leader pointed outNotification for the biennial election will be issued on May 24 and the last date for filing nominations is May 31As the Chief Minister is set to embark on a 10day officialcumprivate trip to Europe from May 20 YSRC leaders expect him to finalise the Rajya Sabha candidates before flying offIn all probability the election could be an unanimous affair as the TDP with just 20 MLAs does not stand any chanceThe YSRCs strength in the Council of States will swell to nine after the biennial electionThe TDP and the BJP will be left with only one Rajya Sabha member eachThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever