-I. Ahmed
Hyderabad (Telangana): After registering a historic victory in the recent assembly elections, in Telangana, the ruling TRS party appears to have decided to consolidate its position in the state. It has launched an aggressive campaign to lure rival Congress and Telugu Desam Party’s elected public representatives to its fold. The objective of the ruling party is very clear. It does not want to have any kind of opposition in the state till the next five years. The party has successfully executed a coup in rival and main opposition Congress party by poaching its four MLCs. The four MLCs of the grand old party viz. Akula Lalitha, MS Prabhakar, K. Damoar Reddy and Santosh Kumar joined the ruling TRS party by merging their legislature party in council into the ruling party. The four MLCs had given a resolution unanimously adopted by them to the chairman of the council V.Swamy Goud and urged him to merge the party with the ruling TRS by citing that four out of the total six MLCs of the party were in favor of the merger.
Acting swiftly on the representation of the Congress leaders, the chairman of the council approved it and released a bulletin merging the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in council with the ruling TRS party. Interestingly, he did not consider the pleas made by Congress leadership of the state including the TPCC president to ignore the request made by their party’s rebel MLCs. With this, the Congress party’s number has been reduced to just two MLCs in the legislative council. Incidentally, the Congress party, which has emerged triumphant in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan state elections, has also lost its main opposition status in the 40-member state legislative council.
Losing not much time after the successful political attack against main opposition Congress party, the ruling party has now shifted its focus on another rival TDP. It has decided to lure two MLAs of the party and succeeded in poaching one. The three time MLA of the party Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, who has hit a hattrick from Sattupally assembly segment of Khammam district from the state, has made up his mind to join the ruling TRS party. He held a meeting with his followers and supporters on the issue and took their opinion. His supporters have asked him to join the ruling party for its comprehensive development.
Interestingly, the ruling TRS has reportedly offered him a cabinet minister’s post if he joins the pink party led by CM K.Chandrasekhar Rao. Another TDP MLA from Ashwaraopeta assembly segment Mecha Nageswara Rao is also likely to join the TRS in the days to come. Commenting on its aggressive poaching drive, a senior TRS leader on the condition of anonymity told this correspondent that their goal was to ensure complete removal of the opposition political parties in the state. “I must tell you one thing here. We have gone for elections on the plank of obstruction of development of the state by opposition parties of the state. It is a bitter truth that the opposition political parties tried to obstruct several development and welfare programs of the state by filing cases against them in High Court. Our government has suffered a lot due to this. We don’t want to allow the opposition political parties to repeat this during the next five years by ensuring that there is no opposition to us in the state’s legislature,” he said.
The ruling party is also making tireless efforts to attract as many elected MLAs of the Congress party as possible to its fold. Ironically, the political poaching has begun in the state even before the first meeting of the state’s assembly.
