Paka Venkata Satyanarayana of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate for Rajya Sabha bye-election from Andhra Pradesh. The Central Election Committee of BJP, on Monday, April 28, decided to field Venkata Satyanarayana for the election scheduled on May 9. Satyanarayana is currently the chairman of the Andhra Pradesh BJP’s disciplinary committee.
State BJP chief D Purandeswari, who is currently on a visit to Europe, participated in the party’s core committee meeting through videoconference. The core committee finalised the candidature of Satyanarayana. This ended the suspense on the candidate of the Telugu Desam Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Last week, it was decided during a meeting between Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Union Home Minister Amit Shah that the vacant Rajya Sabha seat from the state will be filled by a candidate from the BJP.
There have been speculations in some quarters that K Annamalai, who recently stepped down as the BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit president, may be fielded by the party. Aside from K Annamalai, former Union minister Smriti Irani, who lost the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Amethi constituency and Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi leader Manda Krishna Madiga were also allegedly in the running for the Rajya Sabha seat.
However, the saffron party leadership preferred a local leader for the vacancy caused by the resignation of V Vijayasai Reddy, who also quit the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) recently.
Vijayasai Reddy’s term was up to June 21, 2028, but he resigned on January 25, 2025, necessitating the bye-election. As per the schedule announced by the Election Commission of India, April 29 is the last date for filing nominations. The nominations will be scrutinised on April 30, and the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is May 2.
Election for the vacant seat will be held from 9 am to 4 pm on May 9, and the votes will be counted the same day by 5 pm. However, with no other nomination likely to be filed, the BJP’s Satyanarayana may get elected unopposed. The TDP-JSP-BJP combine has 164 MLAs in the 175-member Assembly, while the YSR Congress has only 11 members.