Being present at farmhouse is yagam for some TRS leaders …

​Hyderabad: Many leaders of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), aspiring to be nominated to corporation chairman posts or picked for MLC positions, are now making a beeline for vantage points at party president K Chandrashekar Rao’s farmhouse at Eravelli just to be there and get noticed as they otherwise do not have easy access to Pragathi Bhavan -- the official residence and nerve-centre of the CMO. 

No wonder, most of these leaders are staying put at the farmhouse in view of intense speculations that the ruling party would begin the exercise of filling nominated posts, including those of chairmen of various corporations, and pick candidates for berths in the Legislative Council. They are convinced that KCR would take a call after the culmination of the ongoing Sahasra Chandi Yagam at the farmhouse.

The Sahasra Chandi Yagam started on Monday, with MPs, MLAs, MLCs and ZP chairpersons among the guest lists. However, there are several other leaders at the yagam site who are known to be hanging around solely with the intention of getting noticed by the party leadership, said a TRS leader. Generally, it would be difficult for these party leaders to get into the Chief Minister’s camp office.  Hence, they have chosen to come to the yagam venue. “It would serve two purposes: firstly, they can witness the yagam; and secondly, they can hope to get noticed by the party leadership,” observed a TRS leader.   

Such leaders who attended the yagam included leader of employee’s association G Devi Prasad, who is expecting to be picked for MLC berth. He had contested unsuccessfully in the Council elections from the Graduates Constituency. Similarly, student union leader Pidamarthi Ravi was seen at the yagam site. Ravi was earlier chairman of SC Corporation, but he had to resign for the sake of contesting elections. 

Ravi lost the election in Sattupally but is expecting a second term as the chairman. Another leader Prem Singh Rathore, who was the chairman of the Musi River Front Development Corporation, too had to resign for contesting elections. However, he was also defeated.

About 15 seats would be falling vacant in the Council during February-March.  The Election Commission has asked the State authorities to send details of the vacant seats to enable it to start the process of conducting elections for these seats. The seats include Graduates, Local bodies, Governor quota, Teachers etc.

Leaders like V Prashanth Reddy, Vonteru Pratap Reddy and others are seen at the yagam venue every day. Pratap Reddy joined the ruling party recently and he is expected to be rewarded. Several former ministers are also seen at the yagam venue. They include former home minister Naini Narasimha Reddy, who is expecting Council seat and a ministerial berth in the cabinet. The other former ministers who were seen include E Rajender and C Laxma Reddy.