KCR to TRS netas: Don’t indulge in speculation

 Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao cautioned party leaders against speaking anything negative about the party’s chances in 2019 elections. 

The TRS chief is learnt to have given an ultimatum to the leaders and asked them to leave the party if they do not believe that the TRS will come to power again in 2019. According to sources, the issue of TRS leaders going public over the prospects of the party in the next elections came in a recent meeting held in Pragathi Bhavan. 

The Chief Minister is learnt to be unhappy with the leaders talking to media openly against the party’s chances and against each other. “I am saying that the party will come into power in the next elections. If the leaders have no confidence then they are free to leave the party,” reportedly said by the Chief Minister to the party leaders.  

Off late, the TRS leaders have been openly talking against each other. In the past, Nizamabad public representatives recommended that the Chief Minister suspend MLC R Bhupal Reddy for working against MLA Bajireddy Goverdhan. Recently, party MLA Konda Surekha, in an interview to a local TV channel said that Speaker S Madhusudhana Chary would lose election because there is some Opposition against him in the Constituency.

Followers of Konda Surekha said that the Parkal MLA had been pitching for a ticket for her daughter Sushmita Patel from Bhupalapally Constituency. The Chief Minister is said to be unhappy over these remarks made on a news channel. 

Sources said that the TRS chief had categorically told the TRS leaders that people of the State are with the TRS and if the leaders feel that there are doubts then they are free to leave. “People are voting TRS because of its works and not based on the individuals in the party. If anyone has doubts they can leave the party because TRS is going to come to power in 2019,” K Chandrashekar Rao said in a meeting.

The Chief Minister was also unhappy with a senior leader from Nizamabad for stating that no importance was given to him. “We have given an MP seat to that person... what more importance they want?” the TRS chief questioned in the meeting. Sources also said that K Chandrashekar Rao was unhappy with an MLA and a chairman of a corporation, who was referring to surveys and said that the Chief Minister might not give ticket to him in the party. 

Sources said that the Chief Minister asked the MLA to concentrate on the constituency instead of worrying about the outcome of the surveys. The Chief Minister is learnt to have told the MLA that there was no need for fear after his assurance of tickets to all the sitting MLAs.