Municipal polls: KTR swings into action to check 'rebel trouble'

Hyderabad: Despite being ahead of other parties in the campaign for the ensuing municipal polls, the ruling TRS made day-long efforts to douse the internal problems and see that the rebel threat was reduced to minimum.

TRS working president K T Rama Rao held one-on-one meeting with leaders and rebel candidates, party sources said, adding that KTR has been able to convince a majority of the rebels and all those who filed nominations expecting B forms would be withdrawing in favour of the official candidates.

It may be mentioned here that January 14 is the last date for withdrawal of nominations.

Ministers S Niranjan Reddy, Ch Malla Reddy, MPs G Ranjit Reddy and K Prabhakar Reddy, senior leaders P Rajeshwar Reddy and others called on KTR and explained the rebel threat in their respective districts and Assembly constituencies.

The party has found that a large number of rebels filed nominations in Khammam, Medchal, Medak, Mahbubnagar and Nalgonda districts.

Incidents like Jangaon former municipal chairman G Premalatha Reddy, who is a strong follower of Panchayat Raj Minister E Dayakar Rao, quit TRS and switching loyalties to the BJP and some other party leaders like Medak MP expressing his inability to convince the rebels to withdraw from the contest, made the party to swing into action.

On the other hand, in the Kollapur Assembly segment, many TRS leaders joined the Forward Block and decided to contest in the polls.

The issues are being sorted out with the intervention of the party in-charge and former minister J Krishna Rao. Minister Malla Reddy explained the fast-changing political equations in Medchal-Malkajgiri district, where the rebel threat is high in view of the denial of the tickets to the aspirants in the elections.

KTR asked the minister to hold a coordination meeting with all local leaders and address the issues raised by the rebels.

Later Malla Reddy expressed confidence that all rebels would withdraw from the elections. The party working president also held a teleconference with some MLAs of Adilabad, Nizamabad and Khammam districts and enquired about the threat of rebels in the elections.

They were asked to keep the flock together until the elections were over.