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Ending weeks of speculation around its likely choice, the Bharatiya Janata Party has picked Paka Venkata Satyanarayana, a leader hailing from the Goud community, as its candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha bye-elections from Andhra Pradesh.

An old RSS hand who has risen through the ranks in the BJP, Satyanarayana maintains a low profile and is recognized as a "loyal party worker".

The announcement of Satyanarayana as the BJP's RS bypoll candidate ends weeks of speculation with the names of former Union minister Smriti Irani and former Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai believed to have been in the reckoning.

"He (Satyanarayana) is from the RSS and is well versed with the ideology of the party. Besides, he was also part of BJP’s manifesto committees before crucial elections in the past two decades,” a BJP leader was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

The Rajya Sabha bypoll was necessitated after YSRCP’s Vijayasai Reddy announced his resignation as a Rajya Sabha member and quit active politics in January this ear, well ahead of the completion of his term in June 2028.

The BJP had already secured the support of Chandrababu Naidu's Telugu Desam Party for the May 9 polls in the Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh. Having stormed to power with a clear mandate in the Assembly elections last year, the TDP and the BJP command adequate numbers to win the contest easily.

However, with no other candidate likely to file his/her nomination, Satyanarayana's road to the Rajya Sabha looks clear.

The BJP believes that besides shoring up the support of the Goud community, Satyanarayana will prove to be a measured voice of the party in the Rajya Sabha.

Having joined the RSS in 1976 as a 15-year-old, Satyanarayana was actively involved in student politics as a leader of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad at DNR College in Andhra Pradesh. He officially joined the BJP in 1980, and slowly rose up its ranks from being a foot soldier to holding key party posts.

He was first appointed as the BJP's town general secretary, then a district secretary, and the Bhimavaram counsellor. He later served as the BJP Assembly Convener from Bhimavaram.

In 1996, he contested the Lok Sabha elections from Narasapur but stood fourth, securing less than 1 percent of the votes. He contested again for the MLC elections in 2006 but was unsuccessful.

While his electoral ventures failed to deliver, his commitment to with the party paid off as he went on to hold several key positions within the party over the years.

Satyanarayana was appointed as the BJP’s state executive member in 1994 and went on to serve as the party's Bhimavaram district president between 2006 and 2010.

An advocate by profession, he was elevated to the state vice-president post in 2018 and currently holds the charge of the party’s state disciplinary committee. The BJP leader was also the party’s spokesperson for undivided Andhra Pradesh from 2012-18.

Satyanarayana was part of the BJP election manifesto drafting committee for the 2009 and 2014 polls in undivided Andhra Pradesh. He continued to be a part of the committee in 2019 following the state’s bifurcation in 2014.

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