TDP MPs' absence has Babu fuming

The absence of three of the five TDP MPs from the vote on FDI in the Rajya Sabha left TDP president Chandrababu Naidu fuming. TDP Rajya Sabha MPs Gundu Sudha Rani, Devender Goud and Sujana Chowdhury abesented themselves during the crucial vote on Friday.

“They should have been in the House. Why weren’t they there?” Naidu, now on a padayatra in Adilabad district, he is reported to have demanded of his confidants. He is understood to have decided to seek explanation from them. When the FDI vote took place in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, of the five TDP members in that House, only four had turned up to vote against the government. The lone absentee was Ramesh Rathod (Adilabad) who was with Naidu for padayatra.

Interestingly, the TDP did not issue any whip to neither to its Lok Sabha nor Rajya Sabha members but it took a clear stand against FDI. Lok Sabha member Nama Nageswara Rao (the TDP Parliamentary Party leader) took part in the debate in the Lok Sabha on Thursday where he vehemently argued against allowing FDI. CM Ramesh too argued in the Rajya Sabha against FDI.

The disappearance of the three Rajaya Sabha members from the House on Friday came as a surprise because all of them were expected to support the opposition resolution against FDI.

Sujana Chowdary and Gundu Sudha Rani were elected in 2010 and will retire in 2016 while Devender Goud was sent to the Upper House along with CM Ramesh this year. They are due to retire in 2018.

Their disappearance from the House made other Opposition parties look for motives. BJP senior leader and Rajya Sabha member M Venkaiah Naidu said, “They have been ‘managed’ by the Congress since the contest was neck and neck. The Congress leaders are experts in this kind of game.”

BJP floor leader in the Rajya Sabha Prakash Javdekar said the disappearance of the three demonstrated the ‘skills’ of the Congress in ‘managing’ members of other parties. “This is a clear case of the nexus between the Congress and the TDP. We will expose this nexus in Andhra Pradesh,” Javdekar said.  Chowdary gave a clarification on his absence. “I went out since I had an appointment with a doctor. First I was told that voting would take place 4.30 p.m. In fact, when i was back the gates were closed,” Chowdary said.