TRS heading for century

Hyderabad: The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is heading for a century, its pre-election target, going by present and potential developments.  With two Congress and one Telugu Desam Party MLA deciding to join TRS, its strength has reached 93, out of the 119 seats in the Assembly. During the Assembly elections, TRS president K Chandrashekar Rao and its working president K T Rama Rao had asserted that their party would get over 100 seats. 

The party, however, got 88 seats in the elections and two independents decided to support the party, taking the tally to 90 seats. Two Congress MLAs including Atram Sakku (Asifabad Assembly constituency) in Adilabad and R Kanta Rao (Pinapaka) on Sunday declared that they would join TRS. The two MLAs have said that KCR has assured them of solving the problems of tribals and putting an end to harassment by officials in tribal areas.

Telugu Desam MLA Sandra Venkata Veeraiah also declared that he would be joining TRS soon. Sandra told the media that he had discussed the matter with KCR. “I have decided to join TRS after seeing no future for TDP in Telangana. People of all sections are looking towards TRS and my followers are also pressurising me to join the Telangana party hence I have decided to join the ruling party,” said Sandra Venkata Veeraiah. 

Ahead of the Council elections, the strength of TRS has reached 94, including the nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson. With this, the TRS is confident of winning even the fifth seat in the council.
According to TRS leaders, there are some more Congress MLAs who would be switching to the ruling party soon. Sources said that the ruling party is concentrating on roping in eight or nine Congress members so that it loses the main opposition party status and the Leader of Opposition can be denied to them. 

A senior TRS leader said that if more leaders join the TRS, the Congress would lose status of main opposition. If the Congress party files complaint, the members may be asked to resign and contest on TRS ticket unlike the case on the previous occasion, when the issue was kept pending. During the previous term, many of the MLAs defected, joined the ruling party, and had minister post. The issue was with the Speaker who could not take a decision till the end of the term.

All the three MLAs who decided to join TRS said that if needed they would resign and contest on TRS symbol. Sources said that if the number of MLAs increases and in case there are complaints, all these MLAs would be asked to resign and contest elections again.  This may happen after the Lok Sabha elections. The ruling party is eyeing at least 16 out of the 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana.  Hence, the party is making sure it has enough strength in the form of MLAs as they would be helpful in getting votes for the Lok Sabha candidates.

Sources said that the TRS party was in touch with several MLAs and they are looking at the right time to make the switch. It may be recalled that the Chief Minister, during an interaction with reporters, said that there were about eight MLAs wanting to shift to TRS. Sources said that the TRS leadership had contacted MLAs include Hari Priya Naik, J Surender, V Venkateshwara Rao, Upender Reddy and the second TDP MLA M Nageswara Rao.