TRS membership drive takes a beating

Hyderabad: The differences among Telangana Rashtra Samithi leaders have come to the fore once again with many of them keeping silent and distancing themselves from the party membership drives which are going on in the districts.

According to sources, there is a battle of supremacy among the leaders in the constituencies, particularly between the new entrants and the old horses. The tussle between the MLA and a former MLA of Tandur is known to all and according to sources, the rift has increased further.

It can be recalled that the party has entrusted the responsibility of the membership drive to the MLAs, and at a recent meeting organised for the drive, the party mandal leaders argued and cursed each other which led to Sarpanch boycotting the meeting.

Similar is the case in different constituencies in the districts. Sources said that at some places, the cadres at the grassroots were not supporting the MLAs in taking up the drive.

It is learnt when a local MLA in Kodad had called the party leaders to come for the membership drive, he was reportedly told to manage alone. It is said that the lower rung leaders were upset that they were not considered for posts and were only asked to work.

According to party sources, there seems to turbulence even in Khammam. Though party leaders have been taking up membership drives, senior leaders like Tummala Nageswara Rao, who was a cabinet minister, giving amiss.

Party leaders said that the workers at ground-level were unhappy as they were not given any posts. Under these circumstances, they are reluctant to work, said a senior leader of the party.

He further said that sensing this, Finance Minister T Harish Rao during a membership drive meeting in Sangareddy district, said that it was because of activists the TRS had come to power and in the coming days, the government would try to hand over scheme benefits to people from the hands of party activists.

It can be recalled that party president K Chandrashekar Rao had fixed a target of enrolling 50,000 members in every constituency and the entrusted the job to the MLAs. The legislators, in this regard, were given the books with 50,000 leaflets and were asked to complete the target by February end.