There has been serious controversy and even objections raised over the candidature of R Krishnaiah for the Rajya Sabha seat from YSR Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh. The criticism is that Krishnaiah is from Telangana and is non-local for AP. There is also criticism of his choice as some BC leaders from AP question whether they are not fit.

There are two issues. The first is that the YSR Congress Party is the own political party of Jagan Mohan Reddy and he is responsible for the decisions and the results. Others have little to speak about. The second issue is that out of four candidates, two are non-locals and they are from Telangana. Krishnaiah is not the only non-local. Along with him is S Niranjan Reddy, another RS nominee, who is also from Telangana.

The third issue is that Krishnaiah is not the only or the first non-local to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha seats from the state. Even after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the state had two non-locals sent to Rajya Sabha. Nirmala Sitaraman and Suresh Prabhu represent residuary Andhra Pradesh in Rajya Sabha. Another non-local, Parimal Nathwani, from Gujarat, is now representing AP in Rajya Sabha.

Similarly, several AP leaders were sent to Rajya Sabha from other states in the past. Even now, GVL Narasimha Rao of the BJP was sent to Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. Earlier, vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu was sent to Rajya Sabha once from Karnataka and later from Rajasthan.

Rajya Sabha nominations are purely political and have no significance to the posts. These posts are used by the political parties to serve their political and other interests and they don’t represent the will of the people.

Unfortunately, only this time, and only in Krishnaiah’s case, this non-local issue is discussed for political reasons. Those who find fault with Krishnaiah’s candidature are surprisingly silent on the candidature of Niranjan Reddy.