Daijiworld Media Network- Hyderabad

Hyderabad, Sep 9: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has announced that it will abstain from voting in today’s Vice Presidential election, citing the ongoing agrarian crisis in Telangana and its strained relations with both the BJP and the Congress.

Party leader KR Suresh Reddy told NDTV that farmers in Telangana have been reeling under an acute shortage of fertilizers, particularly urea, for over a month. Despite repeated appeals to both the Centre and the state government, the issue has not been resolved. “For the last month, Telangana farmers have been facing a crisis of fertilizers, especially urea. We have appealed to the central government and the Telangana state government several times to resolve this crisis. But it has had no effect. Also, the BJP leadership in Telangana said that they do not need BRS's support for the Vice President election,” he said.

At the same time, Mr Reddy alleged that the Congress government in Telangana has been targeting BRS workers through unnecessary action, further adding to the party’s discontent. “This is the reason why BRS leadership has decided not to participate in the Vice President election. We know that our participation in the voting will not have much impact on the result of the election, but through this decision, we want to put the crisis of Telangana farmers in front of the country,” he added.

The decision comes close on the heels of K Kavitha, daughter of party chief K Chandrashekar Rao, stepping down from her post, adding to the political turbulence within the BRS.

The Vice Presidential polls, scheduled for today, will see a contest between NDA nominee CP Radhakrishnan from Tamil Nadu and the Opposition’s candidate B Sudershan Reddy from Telangana. Voting will be held between 10 am and 5 pm, followed by counting in the evening.

The election, necessitated by the resignation of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on July 21 due to health reasons, is expected to give the BJP-led NDA an edge, although with abstentions from the BRS and Odisha’s BJD, the victory margin may narrow compared to past polls. Out of 781 eligible MPs, only 770 are expected to cast their vote, bringing the majority mark to 386.

Sources indicate that if independents and smaller parties like the Akali Dal and ZPM back the NDA, their candidate could secure around 449 votes—less than what Dhankhar received but still enough for a comfortable win.