Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (TOI)

HYDERABAD: Bihar Chief Minister and JDU leader Nitish Kumar on Tuesday spoke to Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on phone to seek support of the TRS for JDU party candidate Harivansh Narayan Singh for the Rajya Sabha deputy chairman’s post.

Chandrasekhar Rao told Nitish Kumar that he would discuss the matter with his party colleagues and will take a final decision on it.

The election is to be held on August 9. TRS sources indicated that the Chandrasekhar Rao had a positive bent of mind to support the election of Harivansh Narayan Singh.

Harivansh Narayan Singh is an NDA candidate. Though the TRS is not part of the NDA, Chandrasekhar Rao has always maintained a good liaison with Prime Minister Narendra Modi . Chandrasekhar Rao went out of his way to support the candidature of NDA candidate Ramnath Kovind for the post of President and also M Venkaiah Naidu , also of the NDA, for the post of vice-president.

The support of TRS will benefit the NDA as it does not have the requisite numbers for Harivansh Narayan Singh to sail through easily.

There are also no political compulsions for the TRS to abstain from voting. In fact, the party participating in the voting will mean a lot for the NDA alliance to strengthen its chances of winning.

On the other hand, the opposition too are putting up a candidate. The candidature of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Vandana Chavan is being considered for the post.

In the run up to the election, non-Congress and non-BJP parties have confabulated among themselves. Andhra Pradesh chief minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu is learnt to be keen on getting party MP CM Ramesh see in the deputy chairman’s seat. The candidate of Sukhendu Shekhar Roy of Trinamool Congress was also discussed.

